


Peripeteia

by mondaze



Series: Carry Your Heart verse [4]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alpha Erwin Smith, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, M/M, Mpreg, Omega Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Tags to be added, What-If, canon AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2020-05-13 20:11:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 26,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19258348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mondaze/pseuds/mondaze
Summary: Peripeteia (n., Greek): 'A sudden reversal of fortune or change in circumstances, especially in reference to fictional narrative'Their story doesn't end in Shinganshina. A reimagining of SnK canon, and a sequel to 'Carry Your heart'.





	1. moment

**Author's Note:**

> Please note updated tags!

‘Rage, my soldiers! Scream, my soldiers! Fight, my soldiers!’

Time seemed to stop for Erwin.

Or rather, it didn’t: it continued marching on, but held him trapped in one long, horrific moment. A cacophony of sounds filled his ears.

His soldiers screaming. Dying.

Splatters of blood as limbs and heads were torn off their bodies by the Beast Titan’s rocks.

The thud of their horses’ hooves against the earth.

His own heartbeat, pounding so much it hurt. His own voice, screaming.

He was going to die.

Trapped in that moment, all he could feel was fear: fear for himself, fear for the rest of the Survey Corps, fear for the people within the Walls if they failed. Fear for Levi.

He had always hung on to a selfish, vain hope that they’d die together. Alpha and Omega, Commander and Captain, Erwin and Levi, together ‘til the end.

He hoped Levi would survive. Erwin, heart in his mouth and voice sore from screaming, knowing he was seconds away from sudden, painful oblivion, shut his eyes to block out the image of that vile creature before him and thought of his mate’s face instead.

And then, suddenly, the long moment came to an end.


	2. serum

The legs of Erwin’s poor stallion were cut from under him.

They went down, hard.

Erwin kept his eyes firmly shut and gritted his teeth as the dirt on the ground tore into his face. Small pebbles cut into his skin, blood starting to stream in rivulets down his cheeks. They skidded several metres until they mercifully came to a slow, painful stop.

Erwin panted, eyes still screwed shut. He could hear the screams of men and horses going down around them and could only pray to the three walls that no coming horse would tread on him. A sharp pain was lancing up his leg from where it was trapped beneath his dead horse. Probably broken. He kept his head down, breathing through the pain.

The chaotic noise of the charge slowly died away, and Erwin’s heart thudded in his chest. All dead. They were all dead because of him.

Unbidden, the Beast Titan’s ugly face swam into his mind, sharp teeth pulled into a grin and yellow eyes glinting. Erwin felt a surge of pure, raging hatred. That _monster._

As if summoned by his murderous thoughts, the sound of the Beast Titan’s roar suddenly shook the ground under him. He jerked, eyes cracking open in surprise, blood sticky on his eyelids.

He half expected to see the Beast right in front of him, claws extended and ready to rip him to pieces, but the titan had turned away from the wall. Erwin’s heart skipped a beat; a painful stutter.

_Levi._

His mate shot through the cloud of smoke left from the flares, straight towards the Beast’s outstretched hand. Erwin wanted desperately to close his eyes. That Titan was more dangerous than any they had ever faced; even more than the Female Titan. It was intelligent; perhaps even a match for him. It had taken out hundreds of men and horses with a few handfuls of rocks.

What could one man hope to achieve against something like that?

But he forced himself to watch, feeling their bond tug painfully. If his Omega was going to die on his orders, then Erwin was damn well going to do him the courtesy of not looking away.

Levi was so _fast._ It was hard to keep track of him.

Erwin saw mists of red blood and realised that Levi had sliced the Titan’s arm to pieces only after Levi was already gone, spinning back around to face it again. The look on the Beast’s face – shock, panic – was almost comical, and Erwin watched in amazement as Levi tore back towards it again, going for its nape.

_No, not its nape._

Levi went for its eyes instead, blinding it in a vicious cut of his blades. Then he ducked beneath it, severing its ankle tendons with unerring, cold efficiency. It collapsed, managing to turn its face just before it hit the ground.

It brought a hand to its nape, probably trying to harden as well, but it wasn’t fast enough. It wasn’t _near_ fast enough. Levi cut it to pieces, then braced himself on its back just above its nape. His mouth moved, and although Erwin was too far away to hear his voice, the fury he could make out on his blood-soaked face was clear.

His blades flashed, blindingly fast, as Levi’s blades made short work of the Beast Titan’s nape. The Titan roared futilely as Levi’s blades blurred, deep red blood misting around him.

Then the Shifter was cut free, screaming. He turned around to Levi and found himself with a blade through the mouth, pinning him to the Titan’s carcass. The whole thing had taken less than a minute.

_Ah, Levi. His most incredible soldier._

Erwin’s vision blurred as tears spilled over onto his face. _Levi had done it. They had done it._

His men hadn’t died in vain.

He almost smiled for a moment, but something made him pause. What was going on? Why was Levi hesitating?

His mate was standing still, keeping the Shifter carefully pinned with his blade. His head turned, anguished face gazing out onto the field of carnage where Erwin lay. Erwin wanted to shout, to move, to do _anything_ to attract his attention, to let him know he was miraculously still alive.

_C’mon, Levi. Move!_

Something moved out of the corner of Erwin’s vision. The Cart Titan, flying towards Levi and the Shifter.

His breath, already weak and pained, caught in his throat.

Thankfully, whatever instinct had kept Levi alive in the Underground and in the Corps, an instinct Erwin had always been deeply grateful for, kicked in. He moved in the nick of time, jumping out of the way of the Titan’s open mouth.

Erwin watched in disbelief as it closed its mouth carefully around the wounded Shifter, lifting him up off the Beast Titan’s carcass and turning before loping away across the field.

_Right towards the Wall._

Even separated as they were by such a distance, Erwin could feel Levi’s emotions rolling off him like waves: anger, desperation, grief, hatred. He did all he could to signal to Levi that he was here, that he was a _live,_ that it was okay, that he hadn’t failed him or the corps.

But Levi was distracted, and Erwin would have cried in despair if his body had been capable of it as he watched ten or more Titans turn and rush towards Levi on the Shifter’s orders. He turned his face away as his mate’s gear hissed, wires shooting off towards the first monster coming his way.

He had to put Levi’s fate aside and focus on the mission. If he could just get back to the Wall, back to Eren and the others, then maybe something could still be salvaged of this. His leg was broken, but he didn’t think his gear was damaged.

Slowly, carefully, Erwin began to inch his injured leg out from under his stallion’s dead weight. The poor thing had a hole torn through its chest. Erwin stopped his struggling for a moment, frozen in horror – that could so easily have been _him_ – but then he shook himself out of it grimly.

Finally, he was free. With the sounds of Levi engaging the Titans behind him, he dragged himself along the blood-soaked ground, past the mangled corpses of his subordinates and their horses. Erwin felt a wave of self-disgust wash over him. Even now, he was using them, as cover until he got close enough to the wall to try standing and activating his gear.

As he crawled past each face, he forced himself to turn and look.

* * *

 

 

Exhausted, and with blinding pain shooting up his leg, Erwin nevertheless managed to locate Eren fairly quickly once atop the Wall. It wasn’t very hard.

The Colossal Titan’s decaying form stood near the Wall, and he could just about make out the figures of Eren and Bertolt and what looked like a badly-charred corpse on the nearby rooftop.

Erwin was astonished. The Colossal Titan, whose terrifying form had haunted soldiers and civilians alike since its first catastrophic appearance all those years ago, had finally been defeated.

He moved in a daze, lowering himself down to roof level and flying towards Eren.

When he reached him, he found the young man’s face covered with Titan transformation marks and streaked with tears. He had an unconscious Bertolt Hoover by the collar, but was gazing, transfixed, on the burnt body lying on the rooftop.

‘Eren?’

Eren’s bright eyes glanced at him, sluggishly, but he made no response, and soon turned his head back again. Erwin followed his gaze, and, as the familiar hiss of gear sounded to his left as Mikasa Ackerman landed on the rooftop, he knew instinctively whose corpse he was looking at. Those three always ended up together, in the end.

He closed his eyes. A horrible end for such a brilliant mind. Armin had such potential – but then, didn’t all his men? And weren’t they all lying in twisted, bloody heaps on the field beyond the Wall right now, on his orders? Armin’s death was just another sin he could add to the long list against him.

He heard Mikasa gasp, sob, and turned away a moment, letting the two have their privacy. He glanced up at the top of the Wall, hoping beyond hope to see Levi’s familiar figure there.

_Please, Levi_ , he thought desperately, hoping that there was some way his mate could hear him. _Come back to me. We’re so close to the truth._

There was a sudden _whoosh,_ the rush of sound from a large body traveling quickly towards them, and Erwin spun just as the Cart Titan lunged toward the rooftop. Before he could react, Mikasa had drawn her blade, and Eren had his held against Bertolt’s throat.

The man, the Shifter in the Titan’s mouth, was staring at Eren, a look of clear surprise on his face. There was a few moments of uneasy silence as the two sides faced off. Erwin stared hard at the man’s face, memorising it – this was the face of the man who had torn his men to shreds, who had killed Mike, who had likely set this whole nightmare in motion in the first place.

Finally, the man spoke.

‘You’re Eren Jaegar?’

Eren growled, pressing the blade further into Bertolt’s neck. A bead of blood appeared where it dug into the flesh.

‘Don’t come any closer, monster’

The Shifter’s eyes flickered up behind them, an expression of raw amazement followed by annoyance flashing across his face.

‘Looks like you have a monster of your own’

Erwin turned around, trusting Ackerman to watch his back, and nearly sobbed in relief.

Levi was standing at the top of the Wall. Erwin could see the steam rising off him even from this distance. His face was awash with the red of Titan blood, and after a few moments, he stepped off the Wall with that peculiar, almost lazy grace of his, and began to fall to roof level.

Erwin was filled with such deep, intense relief, that he almost missed what the Shifter said next.

‘You look nothing like your father, you know’

He and Eren both frowned.

_Interesting. So this man had known Eren’s father…_

‘We’re more alike than you know. Both brainwashed by that man’

Eren was glaring at him, but a different look began to cross his face – something like confusion, and realisation.

‘I’m sorry, Bertolt. Looks like this is the end for you’

The Cart Titan turned with the Shifter in his mouth, and Mikasa glanced uncertainly at Erwin. He shook his head at her silently. No use. He would make damn well sure they had another opportunity to take that man down, but it wouldn’t be today.

‘Tell your monster that I’m calling it a draw. And you, Eren-‘ the Shifter paused, eyes scrutinising Eren’s face once more, ‘- I will be back for you, I promise. I will do all I can to help you’

And then the Titan and its cargo were gone.

They barely had time to think, before a small sound came from behind them. It sounded like a cough.

Eren abandoned Bertolt suddenly, letting his unconscious form fall to the tiles, and raced to Armin’s side.

‘He’s still alive! He’s still alive!’

Mikasa rushed over to join them, and Erwin gaped, horrified. How could the poor boy still be alive? He was almost completely burned. There was no future in a body like that, even if he was miraculously holding on.

_Unless…_

The sound of Levi’s boots hitting the tiled rooftop came from behind him, and he turned just in time to get an armful of his mate as he threw himself into his arms. He felt Levi’s hand cradling the nape of his neck. He was trembling, and Erwin pulled him tighter into his arms, closing his eyes and pressing his face into that soft, dark hair.

‘You’re alive,’ Levi gasped, his voice a muffled sob against Erwin’s chest, ‘I thought you were dead. I thought you were _dead’_

Erwin hushed him, pressing a frantic kiss into his hair. He let his lips linger, heart and body and soul drinking in his mate’s healing presence.

‘Leg broken though. Still feel like breaking the other one?’

Levi pushed his face away from his chest and gazed up at him. Even though his face was streaked with dirt and tears, wracked with exhaustion and grief, and matted with Titan blood, the small, private smile he offered Erwin still made his heart ache.

‘Captain!’

Levi turned, fixing on Eren’s distraught face.

‘Armin’s still alive! We need to use the serum on him, quickly!

Erwin watched Levi quickly analyse the situation, eyes flicking from the burned body on the rooftop and Eren’s and Mikasa’s anguish, to Bertolt’s unconscious form slumped against the rooftop. He said nothing. He had given Levi authority over the Titan serum, and that’s where the authority would remain. He already knew what he would do.

Levi reached into his inside jacket pocket and removed the box containing the syringe. He pushed it into Eren’s trembling hands.

‘Here, kid. Take it’

He pulled Erwin with him off the rooftop to a safe distance as they let Eren and Mikasa do what they needed to do. The sounds of Hanji and the remainder of Squad Levi making their way towards them floated through the air as they stood and watched Armin Arlert’s first transformation into a Titan. Mikasa and Eren jetted away from the roof and joined the remainder of their squad on the roof opposite, leaving Bertolt to his painful fate.

Afterwards, when Bertolt had been completely consumed and Armin’s newly-healed body had been pulled, steaming, from the back of his Titan by his crying friends, Erwin heard Levi sigh by his side.

‘I’m sorry, Erwin. I promised you I’d take out the Beast Titan’

Erwin glanced at him, surprised.

‘Looks like we’re going to have to wait’

Erwin twined his fingers through his mate’s, giving them a squeeze.

‘You’ve already done incredible things today, Levi. I could never ask for anything more’

* * *

 

Their hands were still linked when, after a fierce kick from Mikasa, the door to the Jaegar basement, and the truth of their world, finally opened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a few notes on this chapter and this fic in general.
> 
> I've played hard and fast with some of the dialogue and the sequence of events here, both because I genuinely can't remember some of it and because i am changing the storyline itself, so of course there will be some changes.
> 
> I'm aiming for this to be the only chapter from Erwin's POV. Carry Your Heart was almost entirely through his, and since I believe someone requested a sequel from Levi's POV, I've decided to give it a go in this fic! Much as I love Levi, I've never actually written from his POV before, so here's hoping I do my fave justice. 
> 
> From here on out, the story will branch out a bit as i explore my own headcanon of the possible changes to canon resulting from Erwin surviving the suicide charge and living to see the basement. Should be fun ;)
> 
> I have the rest of the fic roughly planned out, and hope to update fairly regularly. (Famous last words...?)
> 
> Thank you for reading, hope everyone has enjoyed the first proper chapter xxx


	3. dance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> quick note: in my personal headcanon, more than nine members of the Survey Corps survived the Shinganshina mission. That may or may not be important later, but just thought i should put that out there at the onset.  
> Enjoy the chapter!

Levi had always imagined that once the truth behind the Walls and the Titans was revealed, their world would seem so much bigger. Instead, the opposite seemed to have happened.

Their nation was an island, surrounded on all sides by vast quantities of water – and beyond that, whole countries-worth of enemies who seemed determined to wipe them out.  Their newfound knowledge of life beyond the walls had, paradoxically, left Levi with the sensation of being trapped, of claustrophobia. He wasn’t sure yet what to make of it all. The idea of there being thousands, probably millions of other people out there; whole civilisations who had more advanced technology and weapons and knowledge than them, was almost too much to take in. He was glad that they had people like Erwin and Hanji and Armin to plan what to do next.

He paused in his changing of their bed and glanced over to Erwin. He was sitting in his chair at the desk in their room, the photo they had found in Grisha Jaegar’s drawer flat on the wood in front of him. He was staring at it intently, as he had every night since they’d returned a month ago.

What a sorry sight they had made. Less than a hundred soldiers staggering back inside the Walls. So many of them left behind, lying on burning pyres in Shinganshina. The surviving forces couldn’t afford to stick around for very long, for fear of the Beast Titan and its forces returning to finish what he’d started.

Levi hated the days and weeks after a particularly bad expedition. The weight of so many deaths seemed almost physical, making it hard for him – usually a light sleeper and early riser – to get up out of bed and go about his day. He was more sullen than ever, snapping at subordinates for minor uniform regulation breaches and pushing himself to dangerous limits in training.

It was worse, this time. Not just because of the huge number of soldiers they lost – so many of them young recruits, fresh out of training – or the horrible way in which they died; the fear they must have felt as they watched those rocks come whistling towards them and heard the noises of limbs being rent from bodies all around them, but because he felt more than partly responsible responsible for it all.

He always did, in a way. Every time they lost anyone on an expedition, there was always a nagging guilt at the back of Levi’s mind. He was faster than everyone else, stronger than everyone else, better at 3DMG than everyone else. As much as it made him uncomfortable at times, they all looked up to him. Sometimes, they expected miracles from him.

He remembered the time, not too many months ago, that a young solider had come nervously up to him in the Mess Hall after an expedition. He’d come to thank him, gushing details about how he and his new squadmates had been so close to meeting their death in the jaws of an abnormal Titan, how he’d wished to the Walls that Captain Levi would come and how, lo and behold, Levi had dropped from the air at the last minute to cut the monster down. The young man had gone away happily after a wordless nod of acknowledgement from Levi, and Hanji couldn’t understand why Levi hadn’t seemed pleased at all with his story.

Levi didn’t have the heart to explain it to them. Sure, he’d managed to arrive in the nick of time to save that young recruit and his friends. But how many others over the years had died with a similar, useless hope in their minds – that Humanity’s Strongest Solider, the fabled Captain Levi of the Survey Corps, would arrive and save them? How many had slowly felt that hope die when he failed to appear?

That young man wasn’t among the survivors, this time. He’d died with his comrades in the suicide charge.

Another person he’d let down.

Levi didn’t realise he was sitting aimlessly on their new bed sheets, staring blankly down at his hands, until he felt Erwin’s arm wrap around him, his Alpha’s head coming to rest on his shoulder.

Erwin didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to. Their bond insured that he felt an echo of what Levi was feeling, and he knew Levi like the back of his hand anyway. Even before they’d become mates, he knew the way Levi got after expeditions. That’s why he’d started their little tradition of after-expedition dinners, all those years ago.

Erwin pressed a kiss to his neck, managing to convey all his feelings in that one touch – sorrow, grieving, regret, concern, love, protectiveness. Levi tilted his head, letting it rest against Erwin’s soft, warm hair. They stayed like that for a few moments, each wrapped up in their own thoughts.

After a while, Erwin nudged him.

‘Let’s go to sleep,’ he murmured.

They had a big day tomorrow.

Levi carefully folded his uniform as he changed out of it, putting each part away in the wardrobe. He slipped into his comfortable sleeping clothes before climbing into his freshly made bed, where Erwin was already waiting for him. Crawling into the warmth of his embrace, Levi curled up and took a shaky breath, drawing in the comforting scent of his Alpha.

They lay there, clutching each other in the dark, until sleep reluctantly claimed them.

 

 

Levi kept his gaze studiously on the carpeted floor of the palace as Historia made her way across the line of kneeling soldiers. The ceremony had been long and tedious, with speeches from the Queen, Erwin, Zachley, Pixis, and several nobles, and he was quite glad to be reaching the end of it.

The morning had started early too; a five-hour long military meeting where they had debated what to do with their newfound information. Erwin and Pixis had argued for releasing it to the public, and Historia had sided with them. They had decided on the exact words to use to limit any possible widespread panic, and it was due to go to the newspapers the next day. They’d have to brace themselves for that.

Erwin released Historia’s hand, and she gracefully stepped into Levi’s line of vision. She held her hand out to him, almost as small as his, and he took it gingerly. He wasn’t made for this kissing hands and kneeling shit - but at least the Queen knew that as well as anybody. He lightly pressed his mouth to the knuckles, careful to keep the touch as brief as possible.

Hard to believe that Historia had been under his command once. Their positions were quite reserved now.

He risked a glance up at her. One of her eyebrows was raised, a barely contained grin lurking beneath her serene countenance. She was obviously thinking the same thing. Levi thought back to the time just after her coronation, when she’d thumped him triumphantly on the arm with his squad behind her egging her on.

He couldn’t hold back a smile then any more than he could now. He released her hand and watched the Queen smile kindly back.

 

 

There was dinner and music, afterwards.

Levi sat next to Erwin and picked a little at his food. He wasn’t particularly hungry; more tired than anything else. But that was before dessert came out – beautiful little tarts decorated with sweet cream and berries, which Levi recognised as the work of the little tea shop and café he and Erwin frequented whenever they had to make a trip to the Capital.

He always did have a bit of a sweet tooth. Levi tried to savour it, as he did with all his favourite foods, but he just couldn’t manage to keep it on his plate very long. Before he knew it, it was all gone.

Levi looked down at it for a moment, struck by the memory of stealing a small, sweet apple from a vendor’s cart in the Underground when he was seven or eight. He’d brought it back to the doorway he was living in at the time and had made it last a whole day. Maybe he’d gotten too soft above ground.

Another slice, perhaps a third of one of the small tarts, was slid suddenly onto his plate.

He glanced up in surprise, but Erwin was already neatly placing his knife and fork across his now-empty plate, engaged in conversation with Nile on his right.

Looking at his profile, Levi suddenly felt the unexpected prickling of tears in his eyes. They were ruthlessly blinked back, and he picked up his fork again, ready to tackle his extra slice of tart. Damn hormones. His medication suppressed his Heats, but not the occasional emotional imbalances they brought with them.

A booted foot nudged his under the table, and he looked up into Hanji’s face – one eye now covered by a patch. They mouthed ‘aw,’ hands creating a mocking heart shape, and Levi scowled. He kicked back.

‘Shut the hell up or I’ll start calling you Three-Eyes’

Hanji threw back their head and laughed, and Levi dug his fork gratefully into another piece of sweet heaven.

 

The quartet moved into a waltz once the dinner plates had been removed and the guests had been given sufficient time to digest their food.

Erwin was quickly swept away by a Beta noblewoman – Levi tried not to let a wave of possessive jealousy roll over him, but it was difficult – leaving him sitting at the table with Hanji. They sat together, full up with food and wine and comfortable in each other’s silent company after so many years of friendship.

Levi sipped at his wine while he absentmindedly watched his squad . Historia had glided over to them once the music started and had pulled a blushing Armin onto the dancefloor. She was trying to show him where to place his feet, but the boy’s talents obviously lay more in books than in dancing. Still, they looked happy. Levi supposed it must be nice for them all to be together again.

Thoughts of the unlikely family he himself had found in the Survey Corps came to mind, and he quickly buried the memories with another gulp of wine. Too many of them were gone, now: Mike and Nanaba and Moblit….

He still thought of them often, of course he did. But not tonight. They had mourned their losses; tonight was a night to celebrate what those men and women had died for – the retaking of Wall Maria, and the discovery of the world which waited beyond the Walls.

He turned his attention back to his squad to distract himself.

Mikasa was watching Armin and Historia wistfully, glancing every now and again back to an oblivious Eren, who was engaged in one of his usual pissing contests with Jean, by the looks of it.

Eventually, it was Connie who left a still-eating Sasha and wandered over to Mikasa to ask her to dance. She took his hand and pulled him out with her, deliberately not sparing a glance for the two boys left behind. Eren and Jean managed to stop their goading each other long enough to stare, aghast, after them. Jean looked particularly offended. Then Eren seemed to take offense at Jean’s offence, and they picked up where they’d left off.

Levi shook his head in amused disbelief.

 _Idiots,_ he thought, but not without a touch of fondness.

He turned his head to make some sort of comment to that effect, but stopped when he got a good look at Hanji. They were staring down at their lap, not seeming to notice Levi’s attention on them.

Levi leaned over, nudged them.

‘Hey,’ he murmured.

Hanji managed a small smile back. Levi knew that smile painfully well.

‘Hey,’ they replied, trying to sound like their upbeat self.

They were thinking about Moblit, that much was obvious. Unsure of what else to do – he’d always been shit with words - Levi scooted his chair closer and placed his hand on their knee, gripping the warm skin. Hanji leaned in gratefully, resting their head against his.

They sat for a few moments, each enjoying the quiet company of the other among the crowds and noise. Eventually, Levi gently pushed them away from him and stood up, trying to ignore the cracks and pops of his joints.

_Fucking Walls, I’m getting old._

He held out a hand to Hanji, relief washing over him when he saw a genuinely delighted smile return their face to its usual cheery expression.

‘C’mon. Better show those brats how it’s really done’

Hanji’s smile turned into a grin, and they allowed Levi to pull them up and onto the floor.

 

‘May I cut in? Pixis has been looking to speak to you, Hanji. He’s very interested in that new weapon idea of yours’

Hanji beamed, giving Levi’s hand one last squeeze before surrendering him to Erwin and making their way towards the Garrison Commander, who was waiting for them at the edge of the dancefloor, looking no less drunk than he usually did.

A warm, familiar hand slipped into his, and Levi tilted his head up to look at his mate. His hand reached up to grasp the rolled up sleeve at the stump of his arm – it would be asking way too much of it to be able to reach all the way up to his shoulder, even Levi could (begrudgingly) admit – and Erwin used their joined hands to pull them gently closer to each other.

Levi sighed as he inhaled his comforting scent. He looked down briefly, assessing how Erwin’s healed leg was coming along. He still moved it pretty stiffly, but it was growing stronger every day.

‘How’s the leg, Old Man?’

Erwin chuckled, moving them slowly around the other couples on the floor. He led, Levi followed. Just like always.

‘Not too bad at all. Glad you didn’t break the two of them, in the end. I wouldn’t have been able to dance with you here like this’

Levi grunted.

‘Some days I still think I should have done it’

Erwin stayed quiet, wordlessly pulling Levi even closer.

‘So close. I was so close to losing you. I-’

Levi choked off, an uncharacteristic lump in his throat preventing him from finishing.

_Damn hormones._

Erwin, sensing his distress through their bond or through Levi’s voice or simply through the look on his face, pulled their joined hands up and pressed a kiss to the skin on the back of Levi’s. Lucky thing Levi was feeling so unusually sentimental that night or he would have gotten a light smack for that.

Instead, Levi stayed quiet, not trusting his voice for the time being. Erwin understood everything he was trying to say anyway.

They moved gracefully around the other couples, Erwin deftly navigating the crowded space as if there was no one there but them. For all Levi noticed them, there might as well have been.

Eventually, just before the quartet finished up their piece and the crowd burst into applause, he found his voice again.

‘I don’t know what I ever did to deserve you’

Erwin smiled down at him fondly.

‘Nor I, you’

Levi leaned up to kiss him, letting all thoughts of absent friends and newfound enemies be banished from his mind by the sounds of the party and the taste of wine on Erwin’s lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bit of a filler chapter here, but it's nice to let our beloved characters dance and drink wine and get all mushy with each other every now and again. God knows they need the break.


	4. plans

‘Marley’

Levi tested the word out. It slipped from his mouth so easily, for a name suddenly so heavy with meaning for them.

Across the table from him, Erwin nodded grimly. The candlelight danced across his face, shadows leaping on the wall behind him.

‘The enemy, so it would seem’

Levi looked around at the other officers around the table.  They all bore similar, serious expressions. Only a month before, the Titans had seemed an insurmountable threat. Now they seemed like nothing more than a footnote in the grand scheme of things.

_What was that old expression again? Out of the frying pan…._

Hanji blinked slowly, looking tired. They’d been having lots of late-night meetings with Erwin, plotting where to take the Survey Corps next. Hanji had been the one to figure out what had kept their island protected so long from a Marley attack.

Levi felt conflicted when they announced their theory to the rest of them. He remembered well the revelation that all Titans had once been humans; the numb shock of realising that his kill count no longer made him Humanity’s Strongest Soldier, but rather quite possibly the worst mass killer in their history. Not even Kenny matched him.

Now, he felt reluctantly grateful that they were even there at all. They may have killed hundreds of his colleagues and friends and thousands of their citizens. But many thousands of others were living safe, albeit constricted lives behind the walls, shielded from open bombardment by the very creatures keeping them trapped.

The citizens hadn’t been told all this, of course. Military briefs had gone to the press outlining the Survey Corps’ discovery of the outside world, making sure to underline that, for the moment, it was not yet safe to attempt to make contact with other nations.

But they couldn’t stay like this forever. Not when they finally knew just how big the world beyond the Walls really was.

Klaus, one of the few senior officers to survive Shinganshina, spoke up.

‘What do we do now?’

Everyone’s eyes turned to Erwin, whose gaze was levelled on the oak table. He lifted his hand briefly and brushed his thumb over a whorl in the wood. Levi waited patiently, feeling his heartbeat beginning to speed up. The Commander’s next words would change the direction of humanity within the walls, and everyone in the room knew it.

Finally, Erwin spoke up.

‘I’ve considered dozens of possible moves from here. Only a few of them, I think, are plausible. In fact, it may be that we only have one route open to us’

Klaus and the others shifted forward in their seats expectantly, and Hanji watched Erwin with intent interest. Levi kept his gaze fixed across to his mate’s face. Erwin was looking back at him when he spoke next.

‘Our long-term goal – to free Humanity from the Walls, and the Titans – has not changed. It cannot. Even if we survive the next hundred years without a large-scale Marleyan attack, we have no reasonable prospects for a future trapped behind the three Walls. We will run out of space, or food, or disease or Titans will slowly wipe us out.

Our medium-term goal, therefore, must involve establishing contact with allies in the outside world who may be able to provide help or who could at least guarantee not to attack us when we begin to expand beyond the Walls. Marley, I believe, is a lost cause. By the sounds of it – and I’m assuming here that Grisha Jaegar’s writings are accurate – they have nothing but hatred and animosity towards us, and have come to hold incredible military might. Establishing friendly relations with them would require decades of careful diplomacy, and we don’t have time for that. There must be other nations out there who would be more willing to hear us out.

That leads us to our short-term goal. This is something which I hope could be carried out within a year or so, with Hanji’s new weapons development’

He nodded across to Hanji, who grinned, always happy to hear their work appreciated.

Erwin looked around at them all then, meeting their gazes one by one.

‘We must gather information. Once we make the passage sufficiently clear of Titans, reconnaissance teams will have to be sent out across the water to find out as much concrete information as they can. We can’t just rely on Grisha Jaegar’s word to plan our future on. Some of our own will have to go where none of us has ever gone before if we are to have any hope of contacting potential allies and protecting ourselves from Marleyan attack’

The room was quiet as everyone imagined themselves in the position of the brave new pioneers. How terrifying it would be, to board a boat and set sail to a land across the horizon with no knowledge at all of the people or things they might see there.

Erwin sighed, probably reading the room.

‘We will have to make sure that any soldiers we send are meticulously prepared for any situation they may find themselves in, or at least able to adapt, since we will obviously lose contact. It is a big thing to ask of anyone, even of our soldiers, so I believe I will have to ask for volunteers’

Levi huffed a short laugh, and Erwin looked across at him, a nearly-hidden fear in his eyes that made Levi sure he knew exactly what he was going to say next.

‘Well trained, able to adapt, meticulously prepared? What would you need volunteers for – you have a Special Operations Squad for exactly this kind of thing’

Erwin gulped and opened his mouth, probably about to come up with some bullshit excuse. Levi waved any objections away before he could. He looked Erwin in the eyes, chin up.

‘Erwin. I will have two Titan Shifters, one of whom happens to be nearly as smart as you. The kids all protect each other and know each other like the back of their hands. They are _trained_ for this. No other Corps soldiers or new recruits would be better suited, volunteer or not. If our future will really hang on this mission, we should be giving it our best shot. Send my squad’

Erwin looked at him intently for a moment, examining his face. Levi could feel the worry and regret coming off him in waves and tried not to feel guilty for it. They had always sworn never to let their relationship get in the way of the Survey Corps’ goal, and Levi meant every word he had said. His Squad were the best chance they had.

Finally, Erwin nodded, mouth pulled tight. Unhappy, but resigned.

‘Agreed. You can brief them tomorrow, and we can start working on a training plan next week’

Erwin looked around the room again, and was met with exhausted, grim faces.

‘I think it’s time to call it a night. We’ve had a lot to take in these past few days, and you all deserve a rest. Dismissed’

The officers, including Levi, rose from their seats and saluted, before beginning the trickle out of the room, tired voices murmuring to each other. Hanji was gathering their papers and turned to go too. Levi jumped in front of them before they could.

‘Hey. Got a moment?’

Hanji looked very much like they wanted to say no, but Levi leveled them with a hard look. Finally, they sighed and shrugged.

‘Sure’

Erwin touched Levi on the shoulder, gently, before heading off towards their room. Levi watched him go, before looking back at his friend. They looked tired, worn-out, just as they’d looked ever since the Shinganshina mission. They’d taken Moblit’s death hard, and even the excitement of finally discovering the truth behind the Titans hadn’t been enough to take the edge off the long nights of work they’d been having to put in since. Levi hated seeing them like that, so unlike their usual, annoyingly-energetic self – although he’d probably never admit it out loud.

So he didn’t beat around the bush.

‘There’s something I’ve been thinking about. Just an idea, but if you’re going to be working with my squad anyway for the next few months it might actually work out. I know he can’t ever replace Moblit, and I would never suggest he could, but I think you should take Armin on as your assistant’

Hanji’s tiredness lifted for a moment, expression taken aback. They looked like the idea hadn’t even crossed their mind, but Levi could see the moment it began to grow on them.

‘He’d be perfect. He’s smart as hell, he’s a Titan shifter, and he’s got the same unholy thirst for knowledge as you. You and him could probably make great progress together’

To Levi’s (secret) delight, Hanji began to smile properly for the first time in months.

‘Hah. That’s true. An assistant would be a great help…And it would be fun to have someone around again. It can get a bit lonely these days, working in the lab all day on my own’

Their smile faded a bit, and Levi awkwardly clapped them on the arm.

‘I can bring the idea up to him tomorrow if you like, when I’m briefing the squad. I’m sure he’ll be only too happy’

Hanji smiled again, nodded, and before Levi had the chance to react (like the others, the long, intense meeting had taken its toll on him) they pulled him into a tight hug. Levi grunted, face pressed into Hanji’s shirt, and placed his hands on their arms automatically to push them back. They didn’t smell too bad though, he realised. For once. So he let Hanji rest their head on top of his, even though it made him feel short.

‘You’ll be careful out there, won’t you? When you leave the island?’

Levi huffed, but squeezed them back.

‘Of course I will’

 

* * *

 

Levi sighed as he entered their room, toeing off his boots and reaching down to line them up carefully by the door.

Erwin was already in bed, tucked in with a book and his glasses on, and Levi couldn’t help the smile that crept up on his face. He was a lucky man.

‘You didn’t have to wait up on me’

Erwin placed his bookmark in between the pages, taking his glasses off and putting both carefully away. He lay back against the headboard, watching Levi as he stripped and got into his sleeping clothes.

‘I wanted to’

Levi grinned, padding over to the bed and throwing the duvet cover open. He crawled in, humming when he found the bed already pleasantly warm. Thank the Walls for Erwin’s perpetually high body temperature. He yawned, settling back on his pillow, and Erwin’s hand reached over to fondly stroke the back of his neck, where their bond mark was.

Levi hummed again, pressing closer to Erwin. He looked up at him, expecting him to say something more, but Erwin was suspiciously quiet. When Levi concentrated enough, he could still feel the faint worry rolling off him. He touched a hand to Erwin’s jaw.

‘Hey’

Erwin still said nothing, just continued looking down on him morosely, so Levi sighed, not without a touch of fondness, and swiftly turned and swung a leg over Erwin’s knees, settling down in his lap. He placed a hand on either side of his face, hating to see the worry in those familiar, piercing blue eyes.

‘You trust me, don’t you?’

Erwin nodded, and finally spoke up. His voice cracked a little.

‘Completely’

Levi stroked a thumb over his face.

‘Then trust me when I say that I will make absolutely every effort to keep myself and those kids alive when we’re over there. Trust me to do this, for all of us’

Erwin nodded again, but still looked faintly sad, so Levi leaned over and kissed him. The movement of their laps together sparked something deep in Levi’s stomach and he rolled his hips forward experimentally again to see if Erwin was having the same reaction.

His mate moaned, grabbed hold of Levi’s hip with his remaining hand, and Levi smiled against his lips. Check.

Levi wrapped his arms around Erwin’s neck, pressing his body more fully against his and opened the kiss, tongue brushing against Erwin’s.

He broke off, mouthing at Erwin’s neck and reaching one hand down to shove up under Erwin’s shirt, tracing the warm, familiar skin there. Erwin was starting to pant a little, and Levi smiled against his neck.

‘Sure you’re up for this? Or is it too long past your bedtime?’

Erwin managed to huff a laugh and when Levi pulled back to look at him he found his eyes closed and a faint smile on his lips. All traces of worry were gone, and Levi felt extremely pleased with himself.

‘I always find it very hard to resist you, my darling’

Levi shivered, hips rolling forward again to press into Erwin’s, feeling the hardness there. To his surprise, though, Erwin stopped him.

‘Wait, wait, wait,’ he gasped, ‘Before I forget. Something I was going to tell you after the meeting’

Levi groaned, a mix of want and frustration.

‘Fucking hell. Can it wait?’

Erwin pecked him on the lips placatingly.

‘Probably not, sorry. It’s about a letter I got from my mother a few days ago - only got ‘round to reading it today. She wants to meet you, properly. She’s invited us over for dinner tomorrow evening’

Erwin had the grace to look sheepish, and Levi gaped at him.

‘Well damn, Erwin. That’s a fucking boner-killer if I’ve ever heard one’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the short update! Trying to keep a little mix of plot and fluffy sideplots....hence poor Levi being taken to meet his in-law next chapter. Not sure either he or Erwin's mother is ready tbh
> 
> will try to update again soon! Hope you enjoy! xxx


	5. dinner

Levi’s mouth felt strangely dry. He swallowed awkwardly, and from across the carriage his mate raised an amused eyebrow at him.

He huffed, swatting at Erwin’s leg.

‘Don’t point those things at me’

Erwin chuckled, risking Levi’s ire – not that Levi really had it in him to be angry at the moment.

‘It’s just rare to see you so uneasy. I’ve seen you face down three ten-metre classes on your own with a quarter of a tank of gas wearing a calmer face’

Levi sighed.

‘This is such a fucking cliché, isn’t it? Nervous about meeting the in-laws’

Erwin grinned at him.

‘I haven’t married you’

Levi leveled him with a look. A bond between a mated Alpha and Omega was as binding as marriage in society’s eyes. Maybe even more so, since marriages could be more easily dissolved.

‘I just want to make a good first impression,’ he grumbled, turning his gaze out the window to watch the cattle-filled fields of midland Rose roll by. ‘Sometimes I’m not the best at those’

‘I would disagree’

He looked back at Erwin’s fond eyes. ‘I’d argue that you consistently defy expectations and first impressions’

Levi scoffed. ‘Yeah. I disappoint them. They expect some six foot-tall, blond fucker-’ he meaningfully raked his eyes down his mate’s body, who grinned boyishly at him and cocked his head – ‘and they get me instead’

Erwin shook his head.

‘And how many are forced to reevaluate their preconceived notions once they see you in action? Or see how kind and compassionate you are?’

Levi nearly squirmed a little in his seat, doing his damned hardest not to blush. Curse his pale skin.

‘Fuck, you’ve become such a sap since we mated, you know that?’

Erwin laughed, delighted, and as he rumbled out an amused ‘So have you!’ Levi’s eyes widened as a thought came to him.

‘Shit. I can’t swear so much in front of your mother!’ Then, as he realised what he had said, ‘Fuck!’

He clamped his mouth shut as Erwin laughed harder than before.

‘Shut up’

Erwin stopped laughing but continued grinning in his direction. Levi couldn’t tell if it was the joy of escaping the barracks which had him so giddy or even nerves himself, but he couldn’t deny that it was nice to see him that way. Things had been moving so swiftly these past few months, and it was not an easy burden to bear. It never was.

‘I think the first word I ever heard you say was ‘shit’’

Levi allowed himself a small smile, turning his gaze out the window again. In his mind’s eye, he saw not the pasture rolling past them, but the claustrophobic, weak light of the Underground; a flash of green cloak and bright blue eyes.

‘I’m aiming for it to be my last word too’

Erwin huffed, nudging Levi a little with his foot, but Levi could tell he was still amused.

The driver interrupted them.

‘Nearly there, Sirs! Ten minutes!’

Levi’s heart jumped stupidly in his chest, and before he could stop himself, he blurted ‘Fuck me!’

Erwin's deep voice rumbled, ‘Maybe later’

Levi hit him again.

__________________________________________________________________________________  


Levi wasn’t sure why, but for some reason, when he had previously imagined Erwin’s mother, he had pictured a tall, sturdy woman, with greying hair that had perhaps once been as blond as her son’s.

He shouldn’t have been so taken aback when the door to the house opened to reveal a slim, brown-haired woman only an inch or two taller than he. She had a kind face, and when she beamed at them Levi instantly knew his evening wouldn’t be as bad as he had thought.

‘Erwin, dear. It’s so good to see you! Lean down a bit and let me kiss you’

Levi watched as Erwin did just that, wrapping his one remaining arm around his mother and pressing a kiss to her cheek.

When he was done, he placed his warm hand on Levi’s shoulder, pulling him gently forward.

‘Mum, this is Levi’

Levi was expecting to get the usual once-over he got from people seeing him for the first time. He had gotten used to them over the years.

Instead, Erwin’s mother drew him immediately into a soft hug, kissing him on the cheek. She smelled of sugar and warm spices, and Levi felt a surprising strength in her when she squeezed him before stepping back, smiling at him.

‘Lovely to meet you at last, Captain’

Levi felt some of the tension leave his body as he looked at her pleasant face. He granted her one of his rare smiles. ‘Just Levi. Please’

Erwin’s mother grinned, stepping back to hold the door open for them, and Levi noticed with a jolt that it was the same grin he had seen on Erwin’s face just fifteen minutes before in the carriage.

‘Only if you call me Eveline. Come on in. I’ve baked a cake for tea’

 

* * *

 

So, Erwin had obviously gotten his height and blond hair from his father. Probably his intelligence too, judging by the stories about his father Erwin had told him over the years. However, over the course of the evening Levi was thrilled to discover that all the private, rarely-seen traits in his mate – those that he only showed to Levi and his close friends, and which Levi absolutely adored – came from his mother: his humour, his doting side, his warmth, his occasional dorkiness.

She kept him regaled with stories of Erwin’s childhood; his odd little habits and adventures. As Eveline insisted on serving him a second slice of cake - despite Levi’s half-hearted protestations that it was too close to dinner - he caught Erwin’s eyes across the table. He was smiling at the two of them, and Levi supposed he was glad to see the two of them get along so well.

He knew that things hadn’t always been easy between Erwin and his mother. She had never exactly blamed him for Erwin’s father’s death, but the guilt that so ate away at Erwin over him had distanced him from his mother, and once Erwin decided to join the Trainee Corps that distance had widened even further. He’d taken years to realise that his mother did not blame him for what happened, and by the time he did he thought it was too late to do anything about it. He thought he had pushed her away for too long. It was actually Levi, in the early years of their relationship, who had encouraged him to start writing her regular letters and to take leave to visit her every now and again. He’d never thought the result of his well-meaning intervention would see him, years later, sitting in Erwin’s mother’s kitchen being introduced to her as his mate.

While the stew bubbled away, they talked over cups of sweet tea about the upsurge in new recruits the Survey Corps had been getting since they’d retaken Shinganshina.

‘I mean, it’s great that you don’t have to go round making all those stupid recruiting speeches any more. You should have heard the kind of crap he’d spout, Eveline. Swear I saw a trainee shit himself one time’

Erwin smiled lightly and shrugged as Eveline tittered. ‘There wasn’t any point sugar-coating things. In fact, that would have been incredibly disingenuous’

Levi rolled his eyes. ‘You and your big words,’ he drawled. ‘Anyway. Some of them coming in now are so fresh it hurts me to look at them. And you should see the size of them. Like real kids’

Eveline grinned and reached across the table, placing a small hand on Levi’s arm.

‘Well, sweetheart, you’re hardly one to talk, are you?’

Levi gaped as Erwin laughed hard. It took a brave person to tease Levi, but he’d allow it. He shook his head.

‘You know, Erwin should introduce you to Hanji, if he hasn’t already. Have a feeling the two of you would get on’

Eveline smiled, kind face creasing.

‘Well, bring them with you the next time you’re over. We’ll make a few days out of it’

She stood, sighing a little as her joints popped, and went over to the pot to check the stew’s progress.

‘Hmm. I’ll give it another twenty minutes or so’

She turned back around, leaning against the counter and wiping her hands on a hand towel.

‘Do you want to take Levi over to the cemetery before this is ready, Erwin? You might as well. I assume you were going to after dinner anyway’

Erwin glanced at Levi, who tilted his head back to him. It was up to him. The Commander seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then he nodded and shifted his seat back, standing up. Levi copied him.

‘Sure. We’ll be back in twenty’

 

* * *

 

 

It was an eight minute walk down the main street of the little village towards the cemetery. Erwin murmured away to Levi for the first few minutes – about the neighbours and the dinner and how he was so glad to see Levi and his mother getting on so well – but he got quieter the closer they got.

Levi decided not to break the silence. He knew Erwin was letting him in on something intensely important to him by taking him to his father’s grave. For someone who had been dead for nearly two decades now, the man still had an enormous influence over his son.

Levi tried to imagine taking Erwin to see his own mother’s burial place – if she even had a proper one. He never knew for sure. As he got older, he had assumed that Kenny had arranged for her to be buried in one of the mass graves that clustered around the edge of the Underground City, occasionally poisoning the water supplies. Or maybe Kenny had buried her himself, somewhere private. She was his sister, after all. Levi knew he’d never know for sure.

He glanced at Erwin as he pulled open the small gate, holding it open for him. His face was so solemn. As he stepped in, Levi touched a hand to his face gently, hoping to comfort his mate a little through his touch. He didn’t stop to see his reaction, but he felt Erwin return the gentle touch on the small of his back, guiding him towards the far end of the cemetery.

They walked to the third last row and Levi followed Erwin up the grass, passing old headstones in various states of decay and upkeep. So many people who’d once lived and loved and had families in this town; who’d probably visited this very place themselves to pay their respects and now lay there quietly themselves.

Levi read each inscription curiously as he walked by. He liked civilian graveyards, in an odd way. They were - mostly - peaceful, soothing markers of lives well-lived. The military cemeteries he was used to were anything but.

_Smith._

Levi stopped. There it was.

He read the inscription. It was simple: just the name, date of birth and death. Nothing that spoke of his job as the local teacher, or the mysterious way he had died. It looked well-kept. He supposed Eveline kept it herself, since they had no other children.

Something about seeing that surname carved into that cold stone sent a shiver up his spine. If Erwin, by whatever spark of luck he lived by, hadn’t managed to survive that suicide charge – if he’d been torn to shreds along with the rest of the soldiers and bled out on that battlefield in Shinganshina - he could have been making his own lonely pilgrimages out to the Survey Corps cemetery, seeing that familiar name on a another headstone. What an empty, cold thing his life would have become, if he had lost Erwin that day.

He almost shuddered. Trying to distract himself, he looked at Erwin. His Alpha's face betrayed no emotions. He just stared down at the grave, almost like he was thinking. Levi decided not to interrupt, and eventually, he spoke.

‘Wish there was some way of telling him. That everything he believed was true’

Levi stayed quiet, watching him.

‘He would have been fascinated by all this. So many new possibilities, lurking for so many years behind the Walls. And now we get to discover them all’

Levi nudged him gently with his shoulder, shuffling in closer to him to shield himself a little from the cold breeze blowing in through the trees.

‘We’ll do it for him, and for everyone else who ever wondered,’ Levi murmured. ‘He would have been really proud of you, you know’

Erwin smiled down at him, leaning in to press a kiss to the top of Levi’s head.

‘I know, Levi. Thank you’

They stayed for another minute or two, before Erwin turned and began to lead the way back past all those old headstones and back through the old, rusted gate.

As they headed back up the road towards Erwin’s mother’s house for dinner, Levi slipped his arm around Erwin’s waist, leaning in to the touch when Erwin's arm wrapped around his shoulders.

 

 

* * *

 

Warm, full, and sufficiently fuzzy after one or two glasses of red wine each, Erwin and Levi spent the two hour journey back to base in comfortable quiet. Each of them stared out the window at the dark countryside rolling by. Levi wasn’t even really thinking of anything in particular. He felt more relaxed than he’d felt in a long time, perhaps even years.

As they neared Trost, Levi switched his gaze from the now-black view out the window towards Erwin, admiring the way he looked in the soft lamplight of the carriage. He looked relaxed, too.

When they passed through the barracks gates, though, Erwin seemed to stiffen up a little, craning his neck to try to see from the window a bit better. Levi tensed automatically, the way his body always did whenever he thought something was bothering his Commander. But the man looked more confused than agitated.

‘Erwin? What is it?’

Before Erwin could open his mouth to speak, a confused frown pulling his eyebrows down, Levi heard it.

Shouting. Running. Crying. Cheering.

_Cheering?_

‘What the fuck?’

Levi opened the door before the carriage had even stopped, squeezing his way out past Erwin first in case he was wrong and there was something he needed to protect him from. But, as he stared in bewilderment at the chaotic scenes before him, Erwin joining him at his side, it quickly became clear that there most defintely wasn’t. Unless crowds of noisy and possibly drunken, happy soldiers were anything to worry about.

‘I did not authorise this,’ Erwin murmured.

Levi frowned. ‘Where the fuck is Hanji?’

They watched for a moment, before cautiously beginning to walk closer towards the buildings. As they approached, some recruit finally seemed to notice their return, because he cried ‘Hey! The Commander and Captain Levi are back!’

A massive cheer went up from the joyful soldiers, and Levi could tell that his confusion was showing clearly on his face. He couldn’t understand such a welcome – they had only been gone since that morning, after all.

Levi saw his own squad, rosy-cheeked in the cold night air and from whatever alcohol everyone was consuming, cheer as well. He caught Connie’s eye as the boy wobbly raised his tankard in a kind of drunken salute at his officer.

Levi was about to walk on over there and smack the drink out of his hand when they heard a familiar voice shouting their names.

They turned as Hanji raced over to them, looking as delighted as the rest of them. Their glasses were nowhere to be seen; most likely lying crushed somewhere. _Might as well enjoy their last moments,_ Levi thought, darkly. If they were the one who had authorised this impromptu party in their absence then they were in for officer latrine duty for three months at the very _least_.

‘Levi! Erwin!’ They were breathless from excitement, and Erwin took the opportunity to give them his best stern look.

‘Care to explain the meaning of this, Squad Commander?’

Hanji nodded, face beaming in the flickering light of the lamps in the crowded courtyard.

‘We got word two hours ago, from the Garrison. They’re gone, Erwin. All of them. They’ve cleared them all out’

Levi started at them, not quite understanding what they were getting at. It was Erwin who sucked in a shocked breath.

‘With your machine? The Executioner from Hell?’

Hanji nodded ecstatically, and suddenly it all clicked.

Levi felt his mouth open and words come out, but it didn’t feel real. Like a dream.

‘The Titans? They’ve gotten all the Titans in Maria?’

Levi watched as Hanji wiped tears from their eyes, laughing a little.

‘More than that, Levi. They’ve killed every last Titan inside Wall Maria, and the government is going to authorise residents to return next week. But they’ve reached the Wall itself, and there have been no reports of any Titans there or beyond that. Looks like we were right, they had all gathered in Maria after all’

‘They’re gone?’ Erwin’s voice was incredulous, and Levi felt a dawning wave of emotion, stronger perhaps than any he’d ever felt in his life, begin to wash over him. ‘The Titans are gone? All of them?’

Hanji nodded, looking strangely caught halfway between shouting for joy and bursting into proper tears, and Erwin grabbed them in a hug, kissing them fiercely on the side of their head. Levi watched in stupefied silence as they embraced, letting the enormity of it settle on him.

_They’re gone. They're gone. They're gone._

The feeling of being in a dream continued as Levi heard himself laugh out loud in joy.

Erwin released a sniffling, but grinning, Hanji and turned to Levi.

Levi had just enough time to register the disbelieving look on his mate’s face, the tears in his eyes, and the euphoria he could feel rolling off him in waves, before Erwin grabbed him, lifted him one-handed, and spun.

As the world blurred around him, Levi tucked his face into Erwin’s warm shoulder, laughing like he hadn’t laughed in years. In his ears, Erwin’s voice deliriously poured out the same three words, over and over again.

‘Levi, we did it! We did it! We did it!’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back, y'all. 
> 
> Sorry for the bit of a wait. On the plus side, i now OFFICIALLY have the rest of this properly planned out (and have a feeling it's going to be a loooong one lol)  
> As another plus, the next chapter is going to be pretty much entirely dedicated to our boys properly celebrating....if you know what i mean ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°) ಠ‿↼ (・ω<) Will probably be upgrading the fic rating thanks to their shenanigans...so stay tuned for that!! XD
> 
> Til next time! xxx


	6. celebration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> levi and erwin get it tf on in this one....so skip if you're not into that! 
> 
> (✯◡✯)
> 
> Not betaed because I'm tipsy and want to get this darn chapter finally up, so will check over everything tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy and sorry for the wait! <3

For someone who nearly never got drunk, Levi was feeling incredibly intoxicated. Everywhere he looked there were people crying, laughing, hugging, shouting, even dancing.

Even he was letting the emotions get to him - he felt it was understandable in the circumstances. He went over to hug Hanji for their part in the Titan elimination and found he couldn’t let go for a good few minutes. He felt rare tears prick at his eyes where his faced was buried in Hanji’s jacket, and had to swallow back a lump in his throat when he felt his old friend’s arms squeeze him tighter.

When they finally untangled themselves Hanji held Levi by his shoulders and smiled down at him. Levi gazed up at his dear, infuriating, manic, loyal friend, and let them ruffle his hair (that’s when he knew the delirium of the others' was getting to him).

A nearby tavern had set up a makeshift bar on the barrack grounds, so Levi bought each member of his squad a drink of their choice. Connie and Sasha were three sheets to the wind already, and the rest were doing their very best to follow them.

When Historia arrived on the scene, shocked expression on her face and disbelieving tear tracks on her cheeks, another massive roar went up among the crowd. She wasn’t tipsy like the rest of them, but she was the only one brave enough to hug the Captain. Having Historia with them and everyone being together again must have triggered something in Eren and Jean, because Levi saw them at once stage in the night crying with their arms around each other. To be fair, the whiskeys they’d ordered from him had probably helped. Levi wasn’t sure either of them had ever had a whiskey in their lives, judging by the hilarious faces they pulled and tried to hide when the alcohol hit their throats.

Levi lost track of Erwin for part of the night, but he could feel his warm presence in the crowd. The bond they had allowed them to sense each other’s emotions, to a limited extent, and Erwin’s joy was boosting Levi’s own.

He knew, logically, that Hanji’s Executioner from Hell had been being put to good use by the Garrison for the last few months, but for some reason he hadn’t imagined it would happen so quickly. Their world had fundamentally changed in the last few months, but this felt monumental. Those monsters who had killed so many of their friends and comrades and family, the tragic once-humans who had been left by Marley to roam the island for a century, were gone. The future seemed to have split wide open. A world with no Titans – what was it going to be like?

‘Commander!’

A recruit’s voice managed to somehow be heard over the noise of the party, and Erwin turned questioningly in their vague direction.

‘We have tomorrow off, don’t we??’

A wave of laughter rolled through the crowd, and Erwin smiled, pretended to debate it for a moment.

‘Of course you do’

Another huge cheer. Levi had never heard the barracks so loud.

By this time, the soldiers had dispersed into their little friend groups, and Levi looked around for Hanji. He eventually spotted them with a large group of recruits, egging them on in some stupid game they were playing. Always a stunningly responsible role model, Hanji. They looked happy anyway, so Levi decided not to interrupt.

His feet took him to Erwin’s side almost without him consciously willing them to. Erwin heard his soft footfalls even over the low buzz of the crowded courtyard. He turned to him, smiling the soft smile Levi secretly hoped he never showed anyone else. The light from the lit torches danced across his face, and when he reached him Levi threw his normal aversion to public displays of affection to the wind and stood up on his toes, grasping his mate’s jacket collar to pull him down to a more manageable height.

Erwin obligingly leaned down a little so that Levi could press his lips to Erwin’s. Levi shut his eyes and concentrated on the warm, soft feeling of it; the familiar, clean smell of the man he’d devoted himself to years ago.

Erwin’s lips tasted wine-sweet, and Levi found himself pressing even closer to him. He felt Erwin’s arm slide down to his waist as they continued kissing in the quiet, dark corner of the courtyard.  When they broke apart, Levi surprised himself by how breathless and dizzy he felt. He opened his eyes and tilted his head up to meet Erwin’s gaze.

Erwin looked down at him intently, jacket collar disheveled and a high blush on his cheekbones. He slowly pulled Levi closer, pressing him tightly against him. There was something possessive in the small gesture, and Levi suddenly had to bite his lip to avoid making any noise that would traumatise any of the soldiers that happened to be within earshot.

By the half-amused, half-turned-on look in Erwin’s eyes, he’d caught his reaction. Levi couldn’t let him have the upper hand. He stepped an inch to the right, his trustworthy spatial awareness letting him know that he was now standing at such an angle, with his back to the courtyard, that no one could see what his hands were doing. He tilted his head at Erwin’s cocky grin and watched it falter when he let his hand drop from Erwin’s collar, trailing it lower and lower until it brushed the front of Erwin’s trousers. Feeling bold from the high emotions of the evening, he trailed his fingers over the slight bulge he found there.

Erwin’s eyes widened in a delightfully shocked expression, and Levi stared back at him as innocently as he could manage. He palmed him gently and Erwin shut his eyes, breathing carefully. When he opened them again he lifted his hand up and brushed the side of Levi’s face with it, sliding it into his dark hair. His fingers brushed the slight scar left over from when they bonded, and Levi actually felt a shiver run up his spine when he felt the soft touch on the sensitive skin.

Touché.

Erwin’s piercing blue eyes looked directly into his own and he tilted his head in a tiny inclination towards the officers’ building behind them. Levi put a hand on his chest and gave him a gently push. Following Erwin into the dark building, Levi risked a quick glance back at the crowd, expecting to see Hanji waggling their eyebrows at him. But no one had noticed them go.

 

* * *

 

 

Erwin’s hand was grasping Levi’s waist as soon as the bedroom door closed behind them, his mouth seeking out his again. Levi slid his hands up his Alpha’s chest, relishing in the familiar feel of the warm, hard muscles there. He pulled at Erwin’s jacket next, feeling rather than hearing the rumbling of Erwin’s quiet laugh in his chest.

The Commander slipped out of the jacket and let it crumple on the floor. It was a testament to how far gone Levi was that he didn’t immediately pick it up and fold it over a chair. Instead, he gently nudged Erwin closer to their bed. Erwin went easily, trusting Levi to steer him right. When the back of his legs hit the bed he let himself tumble back onto it, expecting Levi to follow him.

But Levi resisted the urge to just clamber on top of his mate and spend the rest of the night kissing him. Erwin sat up on one elbow and wide, clear blue eyes watched Levi as he sank to his knees, shuffling them closer together – even sitting down Erwin was too damn tall – and reaching quickly for the buttons at the front of Erwin’s trousers. Nimble fingers slipped the buttons through their holes as Erwin shifted a bit on his elbow, getting more comfortable.

Levi raised an eyebrow at him, flicking the last button out of place and pulling the fabric of his trousers down as much as he could.

‘Not gonna offer me a hand?’

Erwin grinned, looking twenty years old again, and Levi had to smile back.

‘Hope that wasn’t a pun. And no. Think you know what you’re doing’

Levi scoffed.

‘Damn straight I do’

With that, he leaned forward, mouthing at the bulge pressing through Erwin’s underwear.

He heard Erwin’s sharp intake of breath, felt his long fingers slipping through his hair to grip it gently.

He was so warm here, always. Levi's mouth practically started watering. He ran his tongue over the fabric covering Erwin’s balls, then decided he couldn’t wait any more.

‘Fuck it,’ he muttered, tugging on the underwear. Erwin laughed lightly, helpfully lifting himself up so that Levi could get his underwear down far enough to free his cock.

Levi was on him immediately, licking a long, wet stripe up the length of him. Erwin let out a shuddering exhale, leaning back until he was lying flat on the bed. He threw his arm over his face as Levi wrapped a hand around him, pressing his mouth to his balls.

The commander breathed out carefully; a shuddering exhale.

‘You’re ridiculously good at this’

Levi smirked against Erwin’s soft skin.

‘I know’

He took him completely into his mouth and Erwin gasped, hand flying down to thread through Levi’s hair. Levi had his eyes closed, concentrating on the taste and feel of him on his tongue, but he heard Erwin huff a laugh.

‘Show off’

Levi started to bob his head up and down, knowing by now exactly what felt good to Erwin. He loved doing this: loved hearing Erwin’s gentle sighs, loved the stretch around his mouth, loved feeling those long fingers twist into his hair and grip when the pleasure spiked. He was jealous of everyone else who had seen his Alpha like this.

After a few minutes Levi let go of him with a pop and Erwin hissed softly.

Levi stood up, grinning, peeking at Erwin’s flushed, wide-eyed face.

Erwin smiled fondly at him, pulling him up onto his lap.

‘C’mon up here’

They kissed again, taking their time in divesting each other of the rest of their uniforms.

Once they were naked, warm skin on warm skin, Erwin shifted carefully back until his back was against the bedrest. Levi clambered after him, settling on his lap again. Their cocks rubbed against each other and Levi dropped his forehead down onto Erwin’s, sighing at the pleasure.

He reached down, wrapping a hand around both of them while his lips found Erwin’s. Erwin’s cock was wet already from precum and Levi’s own mouth, so Levi’s hand moved easily. Erwin moaned, biting Levi’s lip.

Erwin reached over to the bedside table, grabbing the small bottle of lubricant they left there. He handed it to Levi, who stopped long enough to twist the cap off and drizzle some over Erwin’s offered fingers.

Erwin took his time opening Levi up, long fingers stretching him and leaving him gasping into his mouth. He dropped his head, tucking his face into the warm skin at Erwin’s neck, and he felt him fondly lay his cheek along his hair.

‘I love you,’ he murmured.

Levi kept his eyes screwed shut, uncharacteristically overwhelmed, but he managed to mumble out a response.

‘I love you too’

Levi couldn’t wait any more after that. He batted Erwin’s fingers away, pulling him in for one more kiss before reaching down and wrapping a hand around Erwin’s cock. He looked down, positioning himself carefully, and felt Erwin’s hand on his waist steadying him as he sank down, taking him to the hilt and settling himself back down in his lap again.

He tried and failed to stop a moan slipping from his throat at the feel of his mate inside him. Erwin responded in kind, glancing down to where they were joined.

‘I never get used to this,’ Levi muttered, and Erwin smirked. He brushed his hand along the side of Levi’s face, and Levi was staring at him, drinking his wonderful face in when he began to move.

He moved up and sank down again, savouring every inch of Erwin inside him. Rocking gently in his lap, he kissed Erwin’s lips softly, feeling his tongue swiping across his own.

They deepened the kiss as he increased his pace, Erwin’s hand grasping him at the waist and helping him move.

Levi broke the kiss, gasping and let his head fall back on his neck. Erwin moved forward immediately, pressing a kiss to Levi’s throat, and the pace faltered.

‘You’re so beautiful’

Levi felt himself flushing even more than he already was. He didn’t think he’d ever not blush when Erwin said things like that to him in his wonderful, deep, familiar voice.

To distract himself, he kissed Erwin again, working to regain the rhythm he had before.

They moved together smoothly, each as familiar with the other’s body as he was with his own. They said nothing more for a long while, concentrating only on each other. Eventually Levi slowed, resting more fully against Erwin, and the commander took that as his cue to carefully flip them over. He lay Levi down, lining himself up again and pushing in. Levi exhaled, letting his legs fall to the bed either side of Erwin’s waist, and wrapping his hands around his biceps. Erwin groaned; a low, sensual sound.

‘You feel so good, Levi. Just perfect’

Levi smiled, reaching a hand up to fondly brush the disheveled blond hair falling into Erwin’s eyes.

‘My alpha,’ he murmured, and Erwin’s eyes flashed. He jerked forward into him, pushing deep inside, and Levi gasped.

‘Don’t say something like that to me right now Levi. Unless you want me to cum’

Levi smirked.

‘Well, I do, eventually. And why? Feeling possessive, _mon cœur?’_

Ewin hissed softy, shaking his head, but the smile on his lips was clear. He drove into Levi, who threw his head back on the pillow, hands reaching down to grip Erwin’s thighs and encourage his movements.

Levi moaned, loving the feeling of his mate on top of him, covering him, above him, inside him. Their usual positions were reversed as Erwin tucked his head into Levi’s neck, increasing his thrusts into the tight, warm heat.

He could sense when he was getting close; his pace faltering, biting his lip against Levi’s neck. Levi could imagine the flushed, pleasure-filled face he would be making – he’d seen it so many times. He grasped the nape of his neck, fingers gently rubbing at the short hairs there.

‘C’mon, Erwin. C’mon. Let me feel it’

Erwin gasped, stumbled. So close.

‘Cum inside me’

His alpha gasped and Levi felt him jerk inside him, cock jumping as his warm cum flooded in. Levi groaned at the feeling.

Erwin didn’t rest. He pulled out of him, gently, and collapsed onto his side next to him. His long hand wrapped around Levi’s cock as their lips met, working him until Levi gasped too and came over his fingers in a blinding shock of perfect pleasure.

 

* * *

 

 

They lay facing each other afterwards, bone-tired but warm and content. And when Levi fell into a rare deep sleep, it was to the sound of Erwin’s gentle breaths beside him.


	7. journey

They saw the ocean for the first time two weeks later.

They stood side by side at the shore. Erwin gazed out at the distant horizon, wide blue eyes swimming with emotions. Levi watched Erwin.

‘I wish my father could have seen this’

Levi smiled a little, turning his gaze out towards the water.

He watched as Jean and Connie splashed each other in the surf. Armin picked up some small creature with claws from the shore and screamed when he tried to put it down and it pinched hold of his finger. By the time Mikasa had freed him of it, Armin’s finger was bleeding, but his eyes were wide with curiosity. Hanji raced over to join them, observing the creature from a safe distance as it scuttled sideways away from them.

If he didn’t know any better, they would look just like normal kids (apart from Hanji, who couldn't be described with the word 'kid' nor the word 'normal'); teenagers messing around the way teenagers should. He was glad they got this chance.

Eren was standing on his own, looking out to sea. It was unusual to see him without Mikasa hovering around nearby, but she was, for once, distracted.

Levi glanced at Erwin, whose eyes were still fixed on the horizon.

He sighed and stepped away, leaving his mate to his musings. He made his way over to the boy, watching curiously as his feet sank into the soft sand.

He stood just a bit behind him and said nothing. Just waiting.

Finally, Eren spoke. His voice was surprisingly steady.

‘We’re not safe yet’

Behind him, Levi cocked his head.

‘No’

Eren kept speaking; didn’t turn around.

‘I want to know what’s out there. I want to know what we’re dealing with’

‘We will. Soon’

Eren nodded, turning to face him. He kept his eyes downcast.

‘Eren’

Green eyes looked up and met his.

‘Erwin’s already working on an accelerated mission training. We will be out there in a month. All of us, together. We’re doing this’

Eren nodded again. He still looked strangely glum, so Levi continued.

‘I never thought we’d get this far. Not in my lifetime. Maybe in yours – but I’m glad I’m here to see it’

He let his eyes drift over to Erwin again, lingering on his figure.

‘More importantly, I’m glad Erwin is here to see it. And Hanji. And Armin. And it wouldn’t have been impossible without you, so...thank you’

Eren smiled, nodded, and Levi couldn’t help but reach a hand out and ruffle his hair the way he used to.

_So sentimental these days._

‘Go on and join the others. You won’t get this day back’

Eren huffed a laugh and turned to make his way towards his teammates, leaving Levi to head back towards Erwin and rescue him from an overenthusiastic Hanji, who had picked up the creature from earlier and was looking like she was about to starting chasing him with it at any moment.

 

* * *

 

What followed were quite possibly the most intense three weeks of Levi’s life.

They didn’t have a lot to go on. Dr Jaegar’s notes were quite bare when it came to the geography of Marley itself – they had no idea how big the country was, how many cities it had, how big its population was: the only solid bit of information they had were some vaguely-sketched out directions to what looked like a port. A note next to this map in Dr Jaegar’s handwriting explained that he was making do from memory – the exact route to Paradis island was a state secret, used as it was as a punishment ground for wayward Eldians.

So they had a general direction to travel in once they pushed their boat away from the shore. But what would they find once they reached the port, if they even did? What lay beyond that was pure mystery.

They assumed the people there spoke the same language as them, since Dr Jaegar made no mention of a different language in his notes, nor did his voice, according to Eren and Mikasa and Armin, ever carry any hint of a foreign accent.

But they weren’t sure what the people wore. If they were so far ahead of them in terms of technology and weapons, it wasn’t a hard stretch to imagine that their fashion would have advanced a good bit too. In the end, they decided that simple trousers and a shirt for the men and a skirt and blouse for the women would be their safest bet. Once they got there and saw what the people were wearing, they could adjust or steal what they needed.

So, while Hanji and Erwin drilled his squad in what exact information they needed to bring back and how to go about observing it and noting it down, Levi worked on training them how to blend into crowds, even when they may stand out a bit – drawing from his younger days of pickpocketing from brothel-goers in the Underground’s Red Light district. He was glad they already had a bit of experience in that from the days they were fugitives during the whole Reiss incident.

But this was going to be in another league entirely. Although he’d probably never admit it out loud to them, Levi was incredibly proud of these kids – they were just kids, after all, and he was asking them to go where no one in a hundred years had gone. He was determined to get them as prepared as he could possibly get them, but there was only so much real preparation they could do. They’d all be flying in the dark here, including Levi.

To tell the truth, Levi would have liked more time; would have liked months or even years to prepare for something like this. But he understood Erwin’s urgency. If Hanji’s theory was correct – that it was the Titans themselves who had been, paradoxically, protecting them from a Marleyan attack - then, now that the Titans were gone, they had to act as swiftly as they could to figure out what they were truly up against.

So he taught his squad how to subtly lift loose papers from people’s pockets, what to look out for they suspected they were being followed, the quickest way to lose someone tailing them in a crowd, how to plan a distraction.

The three weeks passed like that, in a blur of rushed days and sleepless nights.

In their bed in the evenings, Levi slept with Erwin’s remaining arm wrapped protectively around him. The extra warmth didn’t help him get to sleep, but Levi didn’t have it in him to separate himself from his mate just yet, any more than Erwin did. Sometimes they would lie awake, pressed close, but unable to say anything.

Levi would try not to let the horrible thought that these could be their last nights together creep in, but it did, more often than he’d like. And whenever Erwin, lying awake in the darkness next to him, would wordlessly pull him closer to him, he knew he was thinking the same thing.

Then, all too quickly, the day arrived.

 

* * *

 

It was a six hour ride from the Survey Corps’ new makeshift base beyond the walls to the sea. From there, they had calculated a day or two’s boat journey to the shores of Marley. They brought enough food to last them a week, just in case, with enough water to last a few days beyond that. The Garrison’s engineers had built them a new type of boat, specialised for the kinds of conditions they anticipated meeting on the open sea, and a team of them were to accompany the Special Operations Squad with it as far as their starting point.

Everything was set.

The plan was to leave the Survey Corps’ base in the evening and ride through the night, with the aim of arriving just before dawn. They didn’t want to risk starting their journey at night. Each of them, thanks to training from the Engineers, knew the basics of operating and repairing boats, but they weren’t _that_ confident.

Early that evening, Levi gathered all the things he needed and left it in the stables by his horse. He changed into his carefully chosen, bland clothing and went to have dinner with Erwin in their quarters.

Sitting across from his mate, seeing the anguish in Erwin’s eyes and doing his best to swallow his own desperate, choking misery, Levi felt a flash of something he had never felt before, despite their years of expeditions, both solo and together, when there had always been a chance of either or both of them not making it back alive: resentment.

This was their life, this was their job, this was _what they did_ – but Levi, in that moment, couldn’t help but _hate_ that fact. Why did it have to be them?

He wanted to keep having dinner with Erwin in their quarters. He wanted to keep going on their morning jogs together, to go out drinking with Hanji, to take trips to the tea shop in the Capital, to go back and visit Erwin’s mother. The idea that all that could disappear in the blink of an eye, whether through an accident on the sea or a bullet from a canny soldier in the streets of Marley, was suddenly terrifying and infuriating at once.

Levi had never had a normal life, and because of that, had never felt like he wanted one. But he wanted one now. He wanted one with Erwin. _Hell,_ Levi realised with a jolt, he’d even have kids with him.

He dropped his eyes down to his plate, pushing his carrots around in the sauce – not that he even tasted any of the food anyway – and internally shook himself. _Just the sadness talking._

They didn’t talk much. Levi cleaned their plates when they were done, feeling Erwin’s sad gaze on him the entire time, and then they headed out to meet the rest of the squad and the Garrison engineers at the stables. Levi refused to look one last time back at their room.

The 104th squad were waiting there already, as planned, buzzing with nervous excitement. They mounted their horses at Levi’s nod and fell into place beside the engineer’s cart (which had their boat lashed onto it) and their horses.

Erwin picked up Levi’s bags and passed them to him so he could wrap the straps around the pommel of his saddle. Levi gave his black mare a fond pat, took a deep breath, and turned to face him.

Erwin smiled at him, gently, the same smile he flashed him each night when they said goodnight. Levi swallowed a lump in his throat.

‘Come back safe to me, Levi’

He stepped forward into the warmth of Erwin’s chest, feeling his arm wrap tightly around him and his face bury into his hair. Levi squeezed his eyes shut and tried to memorise as much of this man as he could; trying desperately, frantically, not to let his thoughts linger on the idea that this was their last moment together.

‘I will,’ he mumbled.

They stood for a few moments more in the shadows of the quiet stables, the gentle buzz of chatter from Levi’s squad and the Garrison soldiers barely registering.

Before he let go, Erwin gave him one last, tight hug.

‘Give ‘em hell’

Levi smiled, even though it hurt to do it, and accepted Erwin’s offered hand to help him mount up. When they left the base, Levi trailing his soldiers and the cart, he gave in to the urge to look back.

Erwin sent him a wave, and Levi returned it.

On the edge of the hill, with the base falling rapidly behind them, he looked back once more. Erwin was still there, in the lights of the camp’s gates, watching them go.

 

* * *

 

The sea was as beautiful as the day they’d first seen it.

Like a flat, blue pane of glass, stretching for miles and miles out to the horizon, further than any of their people had travelled in a hundred years. Levi sat with Dr Jaegar’s notes on his lap, but paid them no mind. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the mass of water all around them. It was astonishing, and the squad spent most of the first hour in silence, each of them lost in their own wonder.

The wonder didn’t last for long.

 

* * *

 

Connie was the first one to turn a bit green. The water had gotten a rockier as the day went on, and it was nearing dark. Not being able to see where they were didn’t help, and the motion sickness had begun to get to all of them, to varying degrees.

Surprising absolutely all of them – him more than anyone – the first to have to clutch the wooden edge of the boat, stick his head over the side, and heave up the few rations he'd managed to eat was Levi himself.

He tried not to groan, keeping his eyes shut and his forehead pressed to the blessedly cool surface of the wood as the boat continued to rock. He swallowed in a desperate attempt to avoid a second go. No luck.

He retched over the side again, disgusted. He would give a shit about his subordinates seeing him like this if he was in a condition to give a damn and if he hadn’t seen most of them with hangovers of varying degrees of severity over the years. As it was, he couldn’t find it in him to care.

‘Wow, Captain! I’ve never seen you get sick before!’

Levi sighed, breathing in a mouthful of salty sea air.

Sasha was the only one of them who seemed completely (annoyingly) unaffected, so she was left in charge of steering. That obviously wasn’t going to stop her making loud comments on the state of her squadmates.

Levi had a brief moment to feel uncharacteristically embarrassed, wishing meanly to not be the only one so affected, before he heard the quick footsteps of someone else joining him, throwing themselves at the boat’s edge and vomiting overboard.

‘Oh, Mikasa! You alright?’

Levi risked opening his eyes to glance at the girl by his side. She was pale as a sheet and sweating too. She met Levi’s eyes and they shared a grimace of solidarity.

These were going to be a long next few hours.

 

* * *

 

‘There, look!’

It was Armin who spotted it first – a thin black strip on the horizon. As they got closer and closer and the shoreline became more defined, Levi checked and rechecked Dr Jaegar’s notes. Yep – going by the shape of the shore, they were going in the right direction. The chatter began to die away as they neared the land.

A sense of relief was palpable when they got close enough to the shore to be sure that it was deserted. Levi had been dreading having to kill someone if anyone had been there to spot them – it would have been almost impossible to plausibly explain their appearance.

Once they got close enough, Levi, Eren, Jean and Mikasa jumped out of the boat to pull it in onto the sand. Sasha was sent out to find a suitable nearby hiding spot for their boat. She soon returned and directed them to a small cove with an underhang. Once their boat was tucked in there, it was almost invisible.

It would do for two weeks, anyway. And that’s how long they were going to be there. No more, hopefully no less.

Levi swung his bag onto his back and stared out at the land in front of him: the tall, yellow grass waving in a gentle breeze, and the green fields beyond. It was only then that he let the real enormity of it all break over him like a wave.

He and his squad were standing in a whole other country. They had really made it to the outside world, and the truth was so close they could practically touch it.

It was time to do some real surveying.

Spread out before them lay Marley.


	8. city

Levi had managed to steal enough money to get them all a dorm room in an inn near the city’s docks.

It was quite cramped with all of them crammed into a room that was probably only built to hold four people at most, and the noise of the dockland comings and goings woke them all up early each morning. But it was clean, cheap and inconspicuous, and it was in a shady enough area that the innkeeper was used to strange characters and didn’t ask any awkward questions, so it suited them down to the ground.

They’d spent the first day getting themselves oriented and gathering everything they needed to keep themselves going there for two weeks: in other words, money and suitable clothes. The 104th had put their new pickpocket skills to good work under Levi’s careful direction. Once they’d gathered enough, Levi sent Sasha, Mikasa and Jean out to find a few clothes shops. Later on, they went in pairs to buy their new clothes, spreading out to avoid gathering attention. Two people coming in to buy a whole new outfit wouldn’t get any stares, but a group of six teenagers and one thirty-something year old man would.

It was jarring, seeing each other dressed in such foreign clothes – although Levi had to admit that he quite liked the hat. He wondered what Erwin would say when he saw him in this getup.

The docklands quarter was cramped, filthy, and full of drunken sailors and thin prostitutes. It was similar enough to the Underground that Levi felt strangely at home. It was comforting, in a way, to see that red light districts were the same the world over.

On the second and third day, they ventured out further into the city. Just like inside the Walls, the people and buildings got fancier the closer to the centre they got. In the guise of tourists, they gathered as much information as they could about the city they had arrived in. Its name was Liberio.

* * *

The fourth day there dawned a hot and sticky day. After a morning of careful information gathering in what looked to be the city’s press district, Sasha spotted a stall selling some kind of cold, flavoured cream jammed into an edible cone and decided that the best information gathering they could do was spend some of their scarce money on ‘local delicacies’.

The kids had done as well as Levi could have hoped for so far, so he decided not to begrudge them this. Besides, it would add to the tourist look anyway.

‘Here, Captain! Try some!’

Levi gave Sasha a careful look and she blanched, before repeating herself carefully and a little louder.

‘Here, Levi! Try a bit of this’

Levi rolled his eyes but sighed and accepted the cone from Sasha. He examined the pile of cream carefully, watching as it began to melt under the heat of the sun. The rest of the squad stood around, too busy enjoying their own cones to speak. Mikasa was licking at the cream carefully, but that looked like too much bother for Levi. He took a bite from the one he was holding, ignoring Sasha’s indignant ‘Hey!’ and concentrating on the taste of the cream in his mouth. It was cold, but nicely so, and tasted faintly of strawberry. He liked it.

Handing the cone back to Sasha, who grabbed it protectively, Levi decided to leave them to it for the moment.

‘I’m going to look around while you finish those things. Don’t move. I’ll be back in ten minutes’

He wandered away, hands in his pockets, and started off down the street. Some kind of street market was set up along the cobbled streets and he inspected each one. Looked similar enough to the ones they had in Trost.

He stopped at a book stall and tilted his head, flicking his gaze over the titles on the spines. The vendor, an older woman, smiled at him kindly from her seat behind the table, and he returned it wordlessly before bringing his attention back to the books. One of them caught his eye and he carefully dug it out of its place, flipping it around to see its cover.

_The History of Marley: from Province to Empire._

Levi flicked it open carefully, scanning the chapter titles. The third one seemed to leap out of the page at him: _The Rise of Eldia: Ymir’s People and the Threat of the Titans._

Before Levi could read any further, there were loud, angry shouts behind him. He spun, heart in his mouth, hoping against hope that his squad hadn’t done anything stupid.

He managed to catch a glimpse of a small, dark-haired boy racing away down the street, a few rather less energetic adults trying and failing to chase him down. Just your average pickpocket, he guessed. When he turned back around again, the old woman’s face had lost its kind expression. It was now twisted into a nasty look of disdain, and she scoffed.

‘Probably an Eldian who managed to get out of the internment zone. They slip past those good-for-nothing guards all the time. Wish we could just deport them all. Do the city no good, being here’

Levi kept his expression neutral and managed to make a non-committal noise of agreement, pretending to be concentrating on returning the book to its proper place.

The vendor was distracted by the arrival of another customer; a regular, going by the warmth of their greeting. The woman’s face had returned to its previous kindly expression, but now it looked fake to Levi. While she was reaching across the stall to hug her visitor, he swiftly slipped the book into his inside vest pocket.

He strolled away, glancing at the clock tower. Three more minutes and then he would start heading back to his squad. 

The street to the left of the square was a lot more shaded than the others. There was something odd about it – something cold and deserted. He crossed the cobbled square as casually as he could, making his way over to the side street.

The buildings there were cold, deprived of the sun. They were somehow scruffier-looking than the other buildings surrounding the square. Some of them didn’t even look occupied.

As he rounded the corner fully and got a view down the length of the street, Levi could see why. He froze, heart thudding in his chest.

A wall.

It was huge, high enough to block out the sun. It was a dark, ugly thing, with twisted metal wire on the top. It was made out of some kind of smooth metal, and Levi couldn’t see any footholds anywhere. This was a wall built to keep people out. Or, was it to keep people in?

He forced himself to move closer to it, glancing carefully behind him to make sure no one had followed him onto the side street. He was alone.

There was an old-looking, scraped metal sign nailed into the wall, and as he approached, the red words on it, etched in angry capital letters, came into focus.

‘LIBERIO ELDIAN INTERMENT ZONE. NO ELDIAN MAY ENTER OR LEAVE THE ZONE WITHOUT EXPRESS PERMISSION FROM THE PUBLIC SECURITY AUTHORITIES. ENTRY OF MARLEYAN CITIZENS IS ALSO SUBJECT TO PERMISSION FROM THE PSA. NEAREST ENTRY POINT TO THIS LOCATION: ARCADIA SQUARE, EAST SIDE. NOTE: THE GATES ARE LOCKED AT 10PM AT NIGHT AND OPENED AT 7AM’

Levi read the words with growing revulsion. A ghetto for Eldians. Even far away from Paradis Island, they were destined to rot away behind walls. He tilted his head to gaze up at the barbed wire, picturing it fulfilling its purpose; tearing the skin of desperate Eldians trying to escape.

He committed the words to memory and then turned, putting distance between himself and the wall as fast as he could.

The sunlight in the square didn’t seem quite as warm as it did before.

* * *

On the eleventh evening in Liberio, after an evening spent around the city park, eavesdropping in its boulevards of cafes and terrace bars, they were discovered.

Levi had gathered his squad from their various posts and they were strolling back towards the docklands. It was getting dark, and the gas lamps were beginning to light up. Sasha and Mikasa were laughing quietly about something, and Eren and Jean were chatting, surprisingly amiably. They weren’t paying attention to the street as they crossed it.

One of the metal contraptions they had come across once or twice – _motorcars_ , apparently – sped around the corner, its driver turned to gesture to a passenger in the back seat. Levi, Connie, Sasha and Mikasa were already safely on the pavement, but Eren and Jean weren’t.

Levi didn’t even bother to shout; it would take too much time. He moved instinctively, racing back towards the street. Those motorcars were fast, though, and he couldn’t get to them in time. Thankfully, Mikasa was closer.

Quick as a flash, she stepped onto the road, grabbed the two shocked boys, and yanked them out of the vehicles’ path.

The motorcar beeped its horn and drove on past.

Mikasa was anxiously checking Eren for injuries when he reached them, and Levi opened his mouth, ready to reprimand them both for their lack of care.

That’s when he glanced over their shoulders and saw the woman watching from across the street.

She was standing just outside one of the more upmarket establishments on the street, an expensive-looking coat slung over her shoulders. Underneath, she was wearing a strange kind of robe; colourfully patterned and with a large sash tucking it carefully around her body. She had the same features as Mikasa.

The woman stared across at them with dark eyes, a look of surprise on her face. Levi froze, feeling his hackles rise. She knew. She _knew._

She tilted her head to the side, indicating the empty street corner at the end of the road. It was lit by a single lamplight.

Levi thought quickly. The woman had two large men with her – bodyguards, it looked like – but other than that, she was alone. And surely if she were going to call the guards and alert them to the presence of Paradis Island spies in their midst, she would have done it already?

They had no choice.

Levi turned to his squad, who were frozen, worry clear on their faces. He motioned to Mikasa and Armin.

‘You two. Come with me. The rest of you stay here for the moment. If something happens to us, run. Run to the boat and head back to the island. Don’t stop. Don’t try to rescue us’

His squad nodded reluctantly, and Levi started walking to the street corner. He felt Mikasa and Armin close behind him, and felt more confident knowing he had the two of them by his side. With Mikasa’s instincts and Armin’s cleverness, they could handle this.

The woman reached the corner before they did. She waited patiently for them, hands clasped politely in front of her. Her bodyguards eyed Levi up carefully as he approached. Levi turned his unimpressed gaze on them and watched their faces betray slight signs of surprise.

They stood before her. Levi said nothing, waiting for her to begin, and after a moment she smiled lightly and bowed her head.

‘Hello. My name is Kiyomi Azumabito, of Hizuru’

She tilted her head, that dangerous, small smile still on her face.

‘And you are?’

Levi stayed quiet, and the two at his side followed his lead and did the same.

‘It’s usually polite to introduce yourselves once someone has done the same to you. But I will excuse you for it. After all,’ her smile grew wider, ‘you are not from around here, are you?’

Levi tensed, his body getting ready to act quickly.

After a moment, he spoke.

‘How did you know?’

Kiyomi exhaled a laugh.

‘It is thanks to your friend here’

She turned to Mikasa.

‘I am Hizuru’s ambassador in Liberio. I know all the Asians in this city. But I don’t recognise you’

Mikasa’s face retained its usual stoicism, but anyone who knew her well, like he and Armin did, could see her surprise.

‘My mother often told me of a branch of our family who had established itself in the court of King Fritz. And then the two boys with you looked like two deer caught before the hunter’s barrel. Quite easy to deduce. You are from Paradis Island’

Levi said nothing, and Kiyomi inclined her head.

‘It’s an honour to meet the first Paradis Islanders to step foot in these lands for over a hundred years. My nation and yours were once allies. And, to tell you the truth, I often believe we should rekindle that relationship’ Her smile turned brittle. ‘Marley is a rather overbearing state, and there are quite a few of us under its so-called protection who would very much like to see it stumble’

_Tensions between Marley and other states? Why is she telling us this?_

Levi could practically hear the cogs of Armin’s brain turning next to him. None of them had expected this. Could they trust her? And if she was telling the truth, what could that mean for them?’

Kiyomi continued.

‘So rest assured that I will not alert the authorities to your presence. Especially when that would endanger you, sweet girl’

She turned her smile to Mikasa and held her arm out. Levi and Mikasa tensed, but she merely rolled back the sleeves of her robe. There was a symbol tattooed on her arm; an ‘A’ in a circle. Mikasa’s eyes widened when she saw it. She pulled her own sleeve up, revealing an identical mark on the outside of her wrist. Levi was reminded suddenly of the gang tattoos in the Underground. He used to have one himself on his collarbone, before he paid for the expensive and painful procedure to get it removed after a few months above ground.

‘We’re family. And families protect each other, do they not?’

Kiyomi turned her attention back to Levi.

‘I do not even have to ask your purpose here. Your very being here already tells me all I need to know. The Eldians left on Paradis Island have somehow found a way to eliminate the Pure Titans there and have finally realised that there is a larger world around them that they have been isolated from for a hundred years. What an interesting turn of events…’

Armin spoke up. His voice was steady.

‘If you’re not going to turn us in, then what are you going to do?’

Kiyomi’s dark eyes observed him carefully.

‘I notice you are not denying my speculations. I will assume, therefore, that they are true. Well, young man, the truth is that many powerful people outside Marley have been waiting for a moment like this for a long time. If Paradis Island really is coming out of isolation, then Marley will be completely focused on it; the threat of Titans still strikes fear into many Marleyans’ hearts. It means that their Paradis Island operation has failed. They are weakened, more than we realised’

Her voice turned thoughtful, and then a smile crept over her face again. It had a wicked edge to it.

‘Tell me, Eldians. Can you get a message from me to your leader?’

* * *

They changed inns that night. Kiyomi had assured them repeatedly that she had absolutely no intentions of giving their presence in Liberio away, and Levi’s instincts told him that she was sincere. But he didn’t like the idea of her snooping around and finding out where they were staying.

On the way to the new inn, the hastily written and signed letter from Kiyomi to Historia in his pocket, Levi thought back to their strange encounter. His head was spinning at the thought that they may possibly have allies in this war. Kiyomi had seemed genuinely thrilled to discover Mikasa; and Mikasa had seemed happy as well to have found unexpected family.

They had learned so much more on their hasty reconnaissance mission than any of them had ever expected. Levi had no clue what direction their future had suddenly taken – he could only hope that Erwin would know what to do next. All Levi had to do now was make sure they got home safely to deliver this information.

Before they parted ways, Kiyomi had pulled him aside.

‘Ordinarily, I would wait until you were safely out of Marley before I brought this information to the interested parties. But I’m afraid we have no time to waste. The faster we act, the more likely we are to succeed. As a soldier, I’m sure you understand that’

Levi had watched her carefully. ‘What are you going to do?’

Kiyomi had shaken her head. ‘I don’t know what will happen, but it will happen soon. You may have to leave, soon. I’m sure you can use the distraction to slip away and return to your home. But be prepared to run’

* * *

Levi set a watch up that night. He volunteered for the watch just before dawn and got a few fitful hours of sleep before Jean shook him awake for his turn.

As soon as Jean was settled and snoring comfortably with the others, Levi headed out of the room, closing the door carefully. He made his way down the stairs as quickly and quietly as he could manage in the dark early morning, thankful that all the inn’s other occupants were sleeping soundly, exhausted from their evenings out in the red light district.

He slipped through the kitchen and found the door leading out to the side alley next to the building. He took in a deep gulp of fresh night air, breathing carefully through his nose, but it wasn’t enough.

He managed to make it over to the kitchen’s bins before vomiting, nausea gripping his gut tightly. The third morning this week.

After a few minutes of miserable gagging, he finally had nothing left to throw up. Levi slid down against the cool brick wall, trying to think through the fog in his mind. He buried his face in his hands, and all he could think about was Erwin, miles away from him, somewhere across the sea.

Levi sat for a few minutes, aching for his mate and mind swimming with worry, before he managed to force himself back to his feet and up the stairs to where his sleeping squad were dreaming, none the wiser.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (O_O;)


	9. attack

The day after that dawned grey and miserably rainy. Levi had deliberately volunteered for the morning watch again, but for once the sickness didn’t hit him. He sat on the floor of the inn and watched his squad slowly wake, mind turning as he tried to decide what to do next.

There wasn’t much more left that they could possibly do. It was a week and four days since they’d arrived in Marley, and they’d discovered more than he or Erwin or Hanji had ever anticipated – including potential allies. The best thing they could do now was return and report their findings so that Erwin could plan their next moves. Every extra hour they spent here was another hour closer to being discovered by someone far more dangerous than Kiyomi.

Kiyomi’s words still rang clear in his mind, too – something was coming. She had warned them to be ready to run quickly, and Levi’s instincts were telling him that they wouldn’t have long to wait ‘til that moment. What precisely was going to happen, he had no idea. The only thing he could hope for was that he would be able to keep everyone together, keep them safe, and get them all back to their boat as smoothly as possible.

And then there was the other worry pressing on his mind. Levi was extremely used to listening to what his body was telling him. He’d been doing it since he lived on the streets, relying on his incredible instincts to keep him alive, and for years after that as a Survey Corpsman in combat against the Titans. Levi told himself that it was no good speculating, trapped as he was over here in enemy territory, and that he should wait until he saw a doctor at home who could verify it for him, but deep down, he already knew what the doctor would tell him.

_Pregnant._

Levi breathed out slowly, letting his head tilt back ‘til it hit the wall. He stared up a spot of dust on the beam near the window. They needed to get home. _He_ needed to get home, more than them.

Levi made an executive decision. They’d do their best to leave today.

* * *

He told the squad as soon as they were all awake. They’d take their things and check out of the inn before one last patrol around the city. There was some kind of church or religious building Armin had spotted, and he wanted to go back and take a closer look at it. The rest of them would explore the surrounding area a bit more, get something to eat, and then they’d all regroup and head back to the beach where they’d stashed their boat.

Levi, Hanji and Erwin had planned for the possibility of the boat not being there when they got back, or worse: being stopped as they tried to leave the city. However, they hadn’t had any trouble getting in, so Levi wasn’t too worried on that front. For a country that was apparently so militarily dominant, Marley was getting rather complacent about the security of its coastal cities.

The sky was still grey as they headed back in the direction of the church. On the way, they passed a warm, cosy-looking bakery just about getting busy. Sasha, as Levi knew she would, trotted over and pressed her face eagerly to the window, inhaling desperately as if she could smell the aroma of the pastries trough the glass. Maybe she could – Levi sometimes thought that that she took alarmingly after Mike when it came to her sense of smell.

Connie soon joined her at the window, and the rest of them looked to Levi for direction. He shook his head slightly and reached into his pocket, counting the coins in his palm. They had enough left to spare for a nice breakfast.

‘Go on, then’

He handed the money to Eren and followed behind after the squad as they joined Connie and Sasha. He turned his back and leaned against the window as the 104th piled in to the warmth of the shop. He didn’t trust himself to eat this early and not set off another bout of nausea.

Levi could remember only very rarely feeling this tired before. Every time he blinked his eyes, it took an effort to open them again.

A pair of boots stopped in his line of vision and he lifted his gaze to see Mikasa beside him. Her dark eyes observed him carefully, and Levi felt himself tense involuntarily. She _knew, s_ omehow.

‘Not going to eat?’

It was phrased like a question, but she looked like she already knew what he would say.

Levi held her gaze. ‘Not hungry’

Mikasa pursed her lips. ‘Hmmmm’

If he’d had more energy, Levi would have laughed. He’d rarely seen Mikasa express any amount of concern for him, but that’s what he could read on her face. By Mikasa's standards, practically mother hen behaviour.

‘You should, you know’

Levi let his eyes slip back to the ground again. ‘Yeah. I know’

Mikasa nodded. ‘I’ll get you something’

She moved to continue on into the shop, but Levi blurted out her name before she could. She turned to him, face back to its usually passivity. She was so much like him, in so many ways. He opened his mouth, unsure of what exactly he was about to say.

‘Thanks’

To his surprise, a small smile spread over the girl’s face. She nodded, then followed her friends into the bakery. They stumbled back onto the wet street ten minutes later, giggling and clutching paper bags of bread and pastries, and Levi followed behind them as they wandered down the road, laughing together in the cold air of the early morning.

* * *

At three o’clock that afternoon, the bells started ringing.

They didn’t pay them much mind, at first. Armin checked the time and mused that it could be an hour with some special meaning to the local churches. He frowned a little though, noting that it was twenty minutes past the hour – that was a bit of an odd time, wasn’t it?

When the bells didn’t stop after five minutes, Levi’s instincts began to warn him that something was off. The atmosphere on the street had changed. People began to stop where they were; began to look at each other in confusion. Levi signaled for his squad, already on their feet, to get closer to him.

‘Something’s happened’

Jean’s voice was grim, and Levi nodded.

‘Start moving back towards the west gate’

_I don’t know what will happen, but it will happen soon. Be prepared to run._

Kiyomi’s words echoed in Levi’s mind. Whatever she had been warning him of, this was it. He could feel it.

They shouldered their bags and began to push their way through the stalled crowds. The bells kept up their constant ringing, and the people started to get louder as fear began to creep in.

It briefly crossed Levi’s mind that if the security situation of the city had changed, there could be increased guards at the city’s gates. He turned to his left, finding Eren there. Mikasa was in her usual protective position at his side - exactly the way Levi would be with Erwin, were he there. 

‘Hurry up. We might need to start running’

They nodded, and the squad followed Levi tensely as he cut a path through the frightened and confused citizens crowding the harbour square.

Levi’s gaze kept being drawn up to the grey, cloudy sky. There was nothing there that he could see, but nevertheless, he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off the clouds. He glanced over to Mikasa, and her eyes were on the heavens too.

Levi’s heart thudded, and he felt a rare panic rise in his throat. Something was going to happen.

He glanced up again.

Nothing.

And then the bells stopped.

There was a brief beat of silence, and then a noise so terrible that Levi knew he would be hearing it in his dreams. It was a high, loud whine, repeating over and over, and the sound of it set the hair standing up on the back of his neck. He looked at the crowds, gauging their reaction. He caught their expressions changing from mild fear and confusion, to outright terror.

Panicked, he whipped his gaze back to the sky. There, emerging from the clouds in the distance, he could see something – some kind of airborne vehicles. The citizens around them started screaming, and Levi didn’t need his instincts to tell them that what he was looking at was extremely dangerous.

He turned around.

‘Run! If we get split up, get back to the boat by sundown!’

In the chaotic square, they slipped easily through the crowd until they reached a small, mercifully empty side street that Levi knew lead in the direction of the West district. There, Levi stood back, letting his squad enter before him. They ran passed him as he counted each one, and then Levi cast a worried glance back up at the flying machines. They were getting closer.

He dropped his gaze back down to the square, and locked eyes with the Beast Titan Shifter.

The rest of the noise of the square seemed to fade away.

The man had stopped, letting the panicked crowds push past him. He looked completely recovered since the last time Levi had seen him, and was wearing a grey uniform and some kind of armband. He had new glasses. Levi felt the hate rise in his chest, and if he hadn’t had his squad to worry about he wasn’t sure whether he would have used the chaos to race across the square and slit the Shifter’s throat.

Staring into his eyes, Levi noticed something that, in any other situation, would have given him no small amount of pleasure.

The Shifter was afraid. Of whatever was happening; the flying machines, yes – but the fear in his eyes was very specific. He was afraid of _him._ Of Levi.

The sound of distant explosions shook them both from their trance-like state. The Shifter gazed off to the distance, a hardened expression on his face. When a young boy, dressed in a similar uniform and wearing a similar expression, stopped by his side, he gave him a firm shove forward, and the boy continued running towards the attacking force.

When he looked back up at Levi, the fear in his eyes was mostly gone. And then he made a single gesture; a small motion with his hand.

 _Go on,_ it said. _Run._

Levi almost froze, almost questioned him, but the Shifter was already gone, racing forward to catch up with the boy from before.

Levi whirled around to where his squad had paused, confused.

‘Run! _Run!’_

They had made it to the end of the street, the West gate in sight in the distance, when they heard the familiar crackle of electricity and BOOM that signaled a Titan transformation. The squad, shocked, made to turn around as they heard the familiar roar of the Beast Titan. The sound sent an involuntary shiver up Levi’s spine.

‘No! Keep going!’ Levi screamed.

Miraculously, they heard him over the screams and the wails of the sirens and the sound of the bombs dropped by the flying machines.

Slipping through the chaotic city gates, they raced through the empty fields towards the beach.

About two miles out, they crested a hill and stopped to look back at Liberio. It was a smoking silhouette in the low light of the evening. Fires raged in the eastern part of the city; where their first inn had been. The kids watched, horrified, as several Titans snatched the flying machines out of the air. Among them was at least one that was particularly familiar.

‘Reiner!’

Levi heard Armin’s dismayed gasp. His own eyes followed the path of the Armoured Titan as it ripped one of the airborne vehicles from the sky. The Beast Titan was there too, towering above the rest and plucking the machines out of the air as easily as Levi had seen him pluck Survey Corps soldiers from their horses. But still more came. A nearly endless amount.

Were these the powerful allies Kiyomi had spoken about?

The Beast turned in their direction. Although it didn’t pause, Levi was sure he felt the Shifter’s gaze on them.

As Levi helped the rest push their boat into the water, he glanced back one last time at the city. It blazed against the dark night sky.

* * *

It was an uneventful trip back to the Survey Corps base.

By the time they landed on Paradis island’s shores again, a whole day had gone by in the boat and it was night again. They made their way a little inland before setting up a camp. They were all exhausted, and there was no point pushing themselves further just to get home one day earlier.

With his squad quiet and sober around him, Levi wrapped himself in his sleeping bag and fell into a fitful sleep. He dreamed of a city on fire; of the eerie wail of sirens and the roar of the terrible flying machines they had seen. He dreamed that the Beast Titan stopped in its defence of the city and looked in their direction, just as it had done in real life. But this time it stooped, and Levi felt his heart thudding in his chest, knowing before the Beast Titan straightened what it would have in its fist.

A handful of debris from a destroyed house. The Beast Titan looked down at the crumbling stones in its hand, as if distracted. Then it looked up. Its red eyes seemed to look directly at him.

It reached a clawed hand back, taking careful aim, and threw.

Levi jerked awake.

It was too warm in his sleeping bag. He shut his eyes desperately, trying to breath in through his nose, but the smell of the grass near his mouth seemed to make things worse.

He groaned inwardly, struggling out of the bag. His head spun a little and a wave of nausea washed over him as soon as he got to his feet. He stumbled over his sleeping squad and made it a little way out of camp before dropping to his knees and vomiting.

_Fuck._

He really hated this.

After a few more minutes of nausea, he waited to see if he had anything left to throw up. It seemed to have passed. Grimacing, Levi got to his feet, fighting the urge to wipe his mouth with his sleeve. He’d go and wash his mouth with one of their water bottles.

He turned to head back to camp and found Armin staring at him, back from a toilet trip.

The boy looked at him with a mix of shock and slight fear.

 _Well, shit._ At this point, Levi really couldn’t give much of a fuck anymore.

He rolled his eyes, pressing the heel of his hand into his eyes.

‘Do me a favour, kid, and don’t mention this to anyone. Alright?’

Armin nodded quickly.

‘Yes, Sir’

He hesitated.

‘Sir, are you-?’

Levi cut him off, moving past him back to the camp. Armin fell into step behind him.

He sighed.

‘I don’t know, Armin. Not for sure. But…I think so’

The rest of the squad were starting to wake up. Jean had rolled too close to Connie during the night, and Connie woke him with an indignant kick. Sasha was sitting up, her hair all over the place.

Levi glanced over at Armin, question clear on his face. The boy nodded to him, and Levi nodded his thanks back. He turned back to his squad.

‘Alright, everyone. Up and at ‘em. It’s time to go home’

* * *

They made it by nightfall.

The sight of the lights of the Survey Corps base was one of the most comforting things Levi had ever seen. He was so tired, and all he wanted to do was stumble into his mate’s arms and breath in his comforting scent.

His squad perked up, excited to be home. They shifted the bags on their shoulders as they heard the watch shout the news of their arrival and the gates started to open.

They jogged past him at his nod, rushing forward to greet their friends. It looked like the entire base had gathered to meet them. Not surprising, he supposed. They had some stories to tell.

Levi pushed in, ignoring the stares of the soldiers. Up ahead, his squad were showing off their new clothes to an enthusiastic audience. Levi supposed he cut a strange sight as well, in his black suspenders, waistcoat and jacket. Too bad he’d lost the hat in the flight from the attack on Liberio.

Everyone was too damn tall. Levi stood on his toes, one hand grasping the strap of his backpack, searching desperately for blond hair and blue eyes.

And then he saw him.

Erwin saw him at the same moment. His beautiful face broke into a smile, and Levi was moving before he even noticed. He didn’t run; he was too tired. But he moved purposely, their soldiers graciously moving out of his way, until he was standing before the commander.

He didn’t care when his bag dropped to the muddy ground.

Levi stepped into Erwin’s embrace, wrapping his arms around him. Neither of them said a word, and the noise of the excited soldiers around them, the exhaustion, the worry about his condition - they all slipped away. He was back at Erwin’s side, where he belonged.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Christmas/holidays everyone! <3
> 
> P:S: Carry Your Heart has almost reached 1000 kudos (!!)!! To celebrate, I'm thinking of writing a little oneshot, maybe a missing scene from the story :) If anyone has any requests/ideas, let me know in the comments! xx


	10. news

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh BOY
> 
> Sorry for the long wait for this one folks...have made it extra long so hopefully that'll make up for it. 
> 
> (Also, hopefully, a certain event that happens this chapter which I'm sure people have been looking forward to 👀)
> 
> Enjoy!

Levi woke before reveille the next morning, curled up next to Erwin’s sleeping form. Their bedroom was chilly but it was delightfully warm under the covers. He stretched a little, careful to avoid waking his mate up, and then let himself relax back into the comfort of the bed. There was no rush. The only thing Levi and his squad had lined up for that day was a medical check and a debriefing session on their mission to Marley with Erwin, Hanji and the rest of the senior officers.  

Time to stay in bed a few minutes and think.

He yawned, shuffling closer to Erwin’s back, slipping an arm over the Alpha’s waist and pressing his forehead to the warm skin of his back.

He’d need to tell him, soon. It was only a month until his next scheduled heat, and he calculated he was about seven to eight weeks along now. When did pregnant omegas start showing? Did it change depending on whether it was a male or female omega in question? He had no idea. _Damn_ – he wished he knew more about this sort of thing. Levi breathed carefully out, surprising himself with the tight twist of worry he could feel deep in his stomach. He really had no idea what he was doing here.

He felt Erwin shifting a little; waking up. Levi tensed without meaning to.

He should tell him now, shouldn’t he? He hadn’t been to see the doctor yet but he was fairly sure. It was just the two of them, alone in the quiet before the day started…the perfect moment to bring his suspicions up and relieve the weight of keeping something this major to himself for so many weeks.

Erwin stretched, almost fully awake. He shifted meaningfully, and Levi released his tight grip on him to let him turn over in his arms. His kept his eyes squeezed shut as he felt Erwin’s long fingers card through his messy morning hair, his lips pressing a soft kiss to his forehead.

‘G’morning’

Levi mumbled a response, glad that Erwin would think nothing of it. He had never really been a morning person, after all.

The room lapsed back into comfortable, lazy silence. Inside, Levi was kicking himself.

_C’mon, c’mon, c’mon. Say something._

Levi bit his lip and, despite his inner voice screaming at him, couldn’t bring himself to open his mouth.

Eventually Erwin sighed. He kissed the side of Levi’s neck and sat up. Levi watched him get up out of bed, pulling the covers back closer to himself to conserve warmth. Erwin threw a boyish, fond smile at him, and said ‘Time to get up, Levi. You’ve got an appointment with the doctor, haven’t you?’

_He sure did._

Levi convinced himself to tell Erwin after the appointment. He nodded. Time to get up.

 

* * *

 

Levi reported to the San for his medical check after a quick breakfast in the Mess Hall.

The nurse at the front desk signed him in and led him to an office.

‘Dr Miller’s on shift today’

Levi nodded his thanks and watched her go, trying not to fidget. To Dr Miller’s eternal credit, he didn’t keep him waiting long.

The doctor’s serious but warm face soon popped out from behind his door.

‘Captain. Good to have you back safe with us. Come on in’

Levi followed him into the doctor’s cramped, familiar office. How many times had he ended up in here over the years?

He took a seat on the bed Dr Miller nodded to, staying quiet as the doctor shuffled around, gathering what he needed. Finally, he hung a stethoscope around his neck and took a seat opposite Levi, smiling. Levi observed him carefully, looking for signs that he could smell any hormone changes on him. The things Levi knew about early stage pregnancy could be counted on one hand, but one thing everyone knew was that Alphas and Omegas could usually detect the miniscule changes in hormone levels that came along with it.

He didn’t give any indication that he could, and Levi began to let himself doubt. Maybe it was all in his head?

‘So, Captain. First things first. Pick up any injuries while you were out there?’

Levi shook his head.

‘No’

‘Okay, then. That makes it nice and easy for me. I’ll just start with a basic eyes, ears, throat and heart check’

 _Hah._ Dr Miller had no idea what Levi was going to spring on him in a few moments.

He let the doctor examine him, used to basic medical checks by now. They were part and parcel of a soldier’s life, and Levi trusted Dr Miller. He’d treated him many times before.

The doctor finished after a few brief, efficient minutes.

‘Everything seems to be fine. You look a little pale and tired, but I don’t think that’s anything out of the ordinary for you’

Levi allowed himself a small huff of laughter.

The doctor had turned in his chair and was moving things around on his desk, looking for a form to fill out. Finding it surprisingly easy, Levi blurted it out.

‘Doctor, I think I might be pregnant’

The doctor paused comically in his shuffling. He turned his head, eyes quickly scanning over Levi’s body like he could tell just from looking at him. Then he nodded.

He turned back to face him, giving him his full attention.

‘What makes you think you are?’

His voice was calm and his tone normal. He wasn’t making a big deal out of it. Levi felt a little more at ease. He breathed out slowly.

‘I’ve been getting nausea for the last few weeks. Mostly mornings, sometimes in the evening too. And the last time me and Erwin had sex we didn’t use contraception’

The doctor nodded, pulling a little black book out of a desk drawer and beginning to make some notes.

‘And when was that?’

Levi didn’t have to think about it.

‘Eight weeks ago. The night we learned the Titans had been defeated’

Levi fought not to let a blush rise to his cheeks, but Dr Miller just nodded again, eyes on his notebook.

‘Any other symptoms?’

Levi sighed.

‘Just tiredness. Loss of appetite, but that might just be from the nausea’

‘When is your next heat due?’

‘In a month’

The doctor finished up his notes and put the book carefully back in the drawer.

‘Well, that’s a good thing. You won’t have too long to wait to be certain. If you skip your heat, I think we can take it for definite’

He paused.

‘I do have to say though that the symptoms you’ve described to me sound consistent with early pregnancy. I can’t detect any glaring hormonal changes from you yet, but that kind of thing can sometimes only be noticed a little further in’

Levi felt calmer than he thought he would be. It was nice to have his suspicions confirmed, even if they remained, for the moment, only strong suspicions.

Dr Miller continued.

‘For now, I’ll just ask you to monitor your symptoms more, especially any new ones you notice. Once we’ve established for sure whether you’re pregnant we can discuss things further, but for the moment just use common sense – no alcohol or smoking or anything like that’

Levi nodded. He hesitated a moment before asking the question most on his mind.

‘Should I tell Erwin?’

The doctor tilted his head, observing him carefully.

‘Well, if you wanted to you could wait until next month, when we might know for definite. But male Omegas tend to show earlier than female ones, especially if it’s their first pregnancy, so you may start to notice some changes in your body before that. Being your mate, he’ll probably notice too. And if your nausea continues the way you have been describing to me, I think you’d find it quite difficult to hide something like that from the Commander. He’s a clever fellow. He’ll join the dots’

Levi nodded again, silently, and the doctor’s expression softened.

‘It’s none of my business how you go about this. But for what it’s worth: if you’re concerned about how he’ll take the news, I think you needn’t be’

Levi glanced up at him, surprised.

Dr Miller smiled at him.

‘The day we found you roughed up by those thugs from the Underground. I was treating you here in the San and Erwin was unintentionally getting a little tense about me touching you. I told him I understood; that I’d been the same around my mate and our daughter in the hospital after she was born. Erwin smiled and said that he would much rather have been in those circumstances’

Levi’s heart was in his throat.

‘Don’t think that means anything,’ he managed to choke out. ‘I was lying fucking comatose with my bone sticking out of my leg. Any circumstances would have been better’

Dr Miller laughed lightly, shrugged.

‘You know him better than I, of course. But I’ll repeat what I said: I think you have nothing to worry about’

Levi thanked the doctor and made his way out of the San, back into the blazing sunlight of the main barracks courtyard.

His mind was thinking back to every time he had seen Erwin with children, or even speaking about children.

After a few minutes mentally reviewing those memories, he realised how obvious it was. Erwin loved kids. Anyone with a pair of eyes could see that.

He tried to picture Erwin holding a baby – _their_ baby, maybe with his dark hair and Erwin’s blue eyes – and was glad no one was around to see him flush. He took a steadying breath, stopping in the doorway of the Officers’ building.

_Shit._

What would Farlan and Isobel think of him now? Very probably carrying the child of the man he was supposed to kill when he joined this godforsaken corps?

_Hah._

Who was he kidding? They’d both be excited as hell. Isabel would say she was becoming an aunt. He had to fight not to smile, thinking about it.

Levi put a hand on the door handle, deep in thought. Dr Miller’s words rang in his ears – he needed to tell Erwin the news.

But tell him when? Now, after the briefing?

Later on, over dinner?

He almost jumped when the bell at the tower rang, shaking him from his thoughts. Eight-thirty. He needed to get to the debriefing.

Levi put everything but the mission to Marley out of his mind and opened the door, stepping through.

 

* * *

 

It took them four hours, in total.

Hanji asked him three times to go over his description of the weaponised flying machines they’d seen. Eventually they even pushed a sheet of paper and a graphite pencil to him, pleading with him to draw it so they could visualise it as best as they could. Levi was shit at drawing, and he told them so.

Connie was a good at it though, and he quickly sketched out something resembling what Levi remembered raining hell down on Liberio. He could still hear the wail of Liberio’s sirens – an involuntary shiver ran up his spine just thinking about it.

And then, of course, there were the two bombshells they’d brought home with them: the book on Marleyan and Eldian history Levi had managed to steal, and the note Kiyomi had written to Historia.

Levi had had a quick look at the book on the boat back, but only the briefest of glances at the chapter on the subjects of Ymir. He rattled off what he could remember about the legend of Ymir Fritz and the power she had bestowed on her descendants. He told them that the Subjects of Ymir had ruled over a large empire once, but had lost their empire through infighting and war, and they were now kept in various interment zones around Marley for fear of their abilities and out of hatred for their past.

He described the wall he had seen in Liberio, and their encounter with the Beast Titan Shifter.

‘He let you go?’

Klaus’ voice betrayed the surprise already on everyone’s faces.

Levi nodded.

‘Yes. He did. He was prioritising defending the city, obviously, but…I still feel like he could have stopped us if he’d wanted to’

Erwin was deep in thought, staring down at the table.

‘If we had some way of getting in contact with him…’

Levi scoffed. ‘You’d work with that bastard? After what he did to our soldiers? And to Mike?’

Judging by Hanji and the others’ expressions, he wasn’t the only one feeling disgusted at the thought of cooperating with that monster.

Erwin raised his gaze, calm blue eyes meeting Levi’s own.

‘Yes. I would’

Instantly, Levi felt ashamed of his reaction.

If there was any chance at all that that Shifter could change sides and help their people, of course they should pursue it.

The tense officers around him deflated as they too realised the wisdom behind Erwin’s words.

They were quiet for a moment more.

Eventually, Erwin reached across to Kiyomi’s note, pulling it across the table to him.

‘This is the most important thing you’ve brought us’

He shook his head softly in disbelief. ‘I had imagined that there would be someone out there willing to give us a chance, but what a stroke of luck to come across them so quickly’

He was almost talking to himself, now. Erwin usually didn’t broadcast his thought processes, so to Levi it always felt like a privilege whenever he thought out loud like this.

‘Of course, we can’t trust Kiyomi yet. We need to be cautious. But it wouldn’t surprise me if Marley had earned itself a few powerful enemies over the last hundred years. If all this about the Eldian Empire is true, then it sounds like Marley has become what it once hated’

He tapped long fingers against the paper.

‘Kiyomi has said to expect contact from them soon. We have no idea what form that contact will take, but we should remain on our guard. I will take this note to Historia myself tomorrow. Hanji, Armin,’ he looked at the two across the table, ‘you two take the book. I’d like a thorough report on its contents by the end of the week’

He looked around the table.

‘I’ll assign tasks to the rest of you one-by-one over the next few days. If we really are to expect contact from allies across the sea soon, then we need to be as prepared as we can possibly be’

He smiled at the 104th.

‘Squad Levi, humanity can never thank you enough for the bravery you’ve shown in this mission. I will make sure that your work is recognised. Thank you’

Erwin stood up and used his remaining hand to salute Levi and his squad. Everyone scrambled to their feet to return it, but Erwin shook his head, the smile still on his face.

‘You’re all dismissed for the rest of the day. Go get some rest. You deserve it’

The room emptied, the 104th already deep in planning for their unexpected afternoon off. Hanji beamed at Levi and gently cupped his face as they left the room, the book tucked under their arm.

As they moved off Erwin approached Levi, grinning.

‘Well. If I didn’t know you and Hanji so well I might be jealous’

There was a flirty tone to his voice, and Levi tilted his head fondly.

‘Someone’s in a good mood,’ he commented drily, and Erwin chuckled.

‘Why wouldn’t I be?’ His smile widened, and he placed a hand on Levi’s waist, pulling him in. ‘We’re making unimaginable progress. I never once imagined we’d get this far. Not in our lifetimes. And,’ he gazed down at him, love in his eyes, ‘I have you safely back with me’

Levi couldn’t help but let a smile break out on his own face. He tilted his chin up, meaning clear, and Erwin bent down to kiss him.

Levi tried to concentrate on enjoying the feel of Erwin’s lips against his own, but he couldn’t quite manage. His mind was still on his dilemma.

_Now? Should I tell him now?_

Before his racing thoughts could come anywhere close to making a decision, Erwin pulled away and spoke.

‘I have to get to work. I need to plan the trip to Mitras tomorrow, and I have to think over all this again. But tonight will be for us and only us’

He pressed another quick kiss to Levi’s mouth. ‘I’ll ask the chef to make something extra nice for us to have in our quarters later’

_Thanks, Erwin. That’s the dilemma solved, then._

Levi reached a hand up to stroke his thumb over Erwin’s cheek.

‘Looking forward to it’

The tight knot of nerves in his stomach said otherwise.

 

* * *

 

The rest of the day passed faster than Levi would like.

He had cleaning rotas to whip back into shape, gear to test, reports from the Military Police and the Garrison to catch up on. Not to mention the endless mission paperwork he had to fill out - and this one had been a more complex mission than most.

Before he knew it, it was dinner time. From his office window he heard the sound of his squad returning from their leave, laughing as they headed to the Mess together.

‘Fuck’ he said out loud to the empty room.

At any other time he would have laughed at himself.

_Fucking get it together, Levi._

He sighed, standing to file away the paperwork for tomorrow. It could wait.

He bypassed the Mess Hall, heading straight for the Officers’ quarters, and found Erwin already at the door. He’d set a basket full of their food down on the ground as he reached for the door handle, and Levi wordlessly stooped to pick it up.

Erwin tossed a grin over his shoulder.

‘Thanks’

He held the door open for Levi and they headed into the warmth of the building, making for their rooms.

It didn’t take long for them to get everything set up. Dinner together was a long-held tradition of theirs, from long before they’d ever gotten together in a romantic sense. Levi set the table and pulled the chairs over as Erwin lit a few candles in the room.

Levi took a seat and let Erwin dish out the food the chef had cooked for them. It smelled delicious.

Erwin looked so happy, and Levi was glad that his good mood had lasted the whole day. It was rare that Erwin’s role allowed him days like that.

Levi had it all planned out now. He’d try to put the bombshell he was about to land on Erwin out of his mind and enjoy the dinner. After they cleared all the dishes away and got ready for bed, that’s when he’d tell him. Perfect.

Then Erwin had to go and ruin it all by taking two wine glasses out of the basket and placing one of them in front of Levi. Levi stared at it dully for a moment, too momentarily stunned by the appearance of the bottle of wine Erwin was producing to say anything.

It was when Erwin had the bottle opened and was leaning over to pour some out into Levi’s glass that his mouth finally caught up with his brain.

‘Oh _shit._ I, uh. I can’t’

Erwin stopped, confusion written on his face.

‘Huh? Why not?’

And then, because Levi had never been a great one for words and because all his careful planning was now fucked anyway, he looked into Erwin’s blue eyes and blurted it out.

‘Because I’m pregnant’


	11. talk

Erwin’s blue eyes widened. His mouth opened, on the verge of saying something, but nothing came out.

They stared across at each other in the sudden silence of the room.

_Fuck fuckfuck. Why did I say it like that??_

Levi’s heart was beating so fast he could actually hear it.

Looked like he had achieved the rare feat of leaving the commander actually s _peechless._

Now that he’d got the ball rolling, Levi figured he should finish what he started, especially since Erwin looked like he wasn’t up to saying something for a few moments yet.

He took a wavering breath in.

‘Look, it’s not certain or anything yet, but I’m fairly sure. Doctor Miller is as well. I noticed the morning sickness just after we left for Marley, so I couldn’t tell you until now. Sorry’

He glanced at Erwin, whose face was settling back into a semi-normal expression, and Levi suddenly felt the words he needed to say flooding out.

‘I know it’s the wrong time. _Fuck,_ it could hardly be worse. We have enough on our plates as it is, we’ve still got the Marley thing to deal with and I never expected this and I don’t know if I’ll be any good at-’

He quietened at the soft touch of Erwin’s hand on his arm.

‘Levi’

He took a moment to breathe and look at his mate’s face; _really_ look. The shock had disappeared from Erwin’s eyes. In Levi’s most anxious imaginings of how this would go, he had pictured those eyes looking at him with disappointment, annoyance, even anger.

But he needn’t have worried. Erwin was looking at him with the love and fondness Levi had been hoping to see, and the relief of finally not having to keep this to himself was so great that he felt his eyes begin to well up with rare tears.

‘Oh, Levi’

His vision had started to blur but he was able to hear the scrape of Erwin’s chair as he moved it around to Levi, and when those long fingers slipped into his hair and pulled him close Levi shut his eyes and went willingly.

Erwin’s chest was warm and his familiar scent soothing. Levi was suddenly reminded of being wrapped in his mother’s arms when he was sick as a child. He didn’t think of his mother often – he hated to think of her sad life and even sadder death, and he hated the guilt he felt when he thought about how much she must have given up for him – but when he did, the clearest memory he had of her was of how warm and safe he felt in her embrace. Even with what little she had, she had been a good mother to him.

Would he be able to be the same for a child of his own?

The thought threatened to send him down the same anxious swirl of panic he’d been in earlier, but, as if he could sense it – in fact, he probably could – Erwin calmed him again by laying his chin atop Levi’s head.

‘I’m sorry you had to deal with this alone. If I had known, I wouldn’t have sent you out on that mission’

Levi’s tears had dried up and he managed to scoff (although it came out a bit wobbly).

‘Yeah, and then we wouldn’t have all this new intel,’ he sighed. ‘Besides, I didn’t know either back then’

Erwin hummed, the sound reverberating through his chest. Levi could practically hear him thinking. He was content to lie in his warm embrace and let him.

He'd done it. He'd told him. Not in the way he'd wanted to, but still.

_Thank fuck._

He concentrated on getting his heart rate back to normal, beginning to feel mildly embarrassed by his rushed, rambling confession.

‘You’re about eight weeks along…?’

Levi sat back and looked Erwin in the face. To Levi’s delight, he had a slight blush forming on his high cheekbones. He had realised exactly when this had happened just as quickly as Levi had.

‘Obviously. Neither of us were thinking properly that night’

Erwin blushed even more, and Levi let himself smile at the sight. It didn’t last long though. He looked into Erwin’s eyes, trying to gauge what he was thinking. He could be a hard man to read sometimes, even for Levi.

‘Erwin,’ he began, hesitant. ‘I- what do you think?’

Erwin’s gaze turned fond again, and in a sudden reversal Levi felt himself struggling not to blush beneath it.

His mate smiled at him, shaking his head in affection.

‘Levi, if I haven’t made it clear yet what I think it’s because I’m still in a little bit of shock. But it’s…’

He trailed off, smile widening.

‘I’ve always wanted children. Always. You know that. But I gave all that up when I joined the Survey Corps. I never thought…’

He trailed off again, and this time Levi could see the tell-tale shininess of his eyes. He nudged him.

‘Oi. Don’t you start or you’ll get me going again’

Erwin let out a huff of laughter and briefly unwound his arm from Levi’s shoulders so he could wipe at his eyes. He quickly wrapped it around him again, pulling him in tight, and Levi snuck one of his own around his waist, throwing one of his legs over Erwin’s too for good measure. He wanted to be as close to him as possible.

‘I disagree with you, about it being the worst time. It could be better, sure, but we’re making real progress now. The Titans are gone. There’s no chance of another one of the Walls coming down and letting those monsters in again. We have Marley to worry about, but it looks certain that we have allies out there – maybe even amongst the Marleyans themselves. In a year’s time or less, everything could be different. For the first time ever, I have real hope that it will be’

He lifted his hand from Levi’s shoulder, raising it to brush his fingers along the side of Levi’s face.

‘For so many years, my dream was to find out the truth behind the Titans; to discover what was really beyond the Walls. And that dream came true for me, thanks to you and Mike and Hanji and Eren and everyone else who fought with me over the years’

He smiled lovingly down at him.

‘And here you are, giving me a whole other dream to fight for. If I spent my whole life thanking you for everything you’ve done for me, it still wouldn't be enough’

Levi gave up on keeping a straight face and flushed, forcing his gaze down to where their legs were comfortably entangled.

‘Holy shit. Are you going to be this sappy the whole nine months?’

Erwin squeezed him happily.

‘Seven months, now,’ he corrected, ‘and yes, probably. I apologise in advance’

Levi huffed out a laugh.

‘Well, I apologise in advance for how much of an asshole I’m going to be when I’m huge and cranky all the time. If you think I’m bad now, just you wait: I’m gonna make your life _hell_ ’

Erwin laughed again, a full-throated, real laugh this time.

‘I lived through the hell of the Titans. The hell of a hormonal, pregnant mate is one I’ll gladly face, believe me’

He sobered up again.

‘Levi,’ he said, ‘you know that what you think is more important than what I think. Are you happy with this?’

Levi glanced up at Erwin, watching him earnestly. He felt a rush of affection for him.

_My Alpha._

He squeezed Erwin’s waist where he had his arm wrapped around it.

He didn’t say anything for a moment, wanting to get his words right this time after the mess he'd made earlier. Words had never been his strong suit.

‘I’m like you,’ he began. ‘I didn’t think about it at all when I was younger, and then completely put it out of my mind when I joined the Corps. Half-thought the constant suppressant use had fucked my system up badly enough for it never to be an issue anyway - saw that happen a few times in the Underground. Never pictured myself as a parent. Never had anyone to look up to that way, not really’

Kenny’s face briefly came to his mind, but he quickly forced the image away.

‘Still can’t really picture myself carrying a baby around or changing it or teaching it how to read and write and talk and all that shit’

He paused for a moment. The mental image was bizarre, and from the vague, distracted smile creeping over Erwin’s face he knew he was thinking it too.

‘Still…I never pictured myself as a soldier killing Titans either, or even as someone’s mate. Not ‘til you turned up. I think this is the same. I think…’

He took a breath, surprising himself with how quickly he had swung from anxious to calm. He guessed he should get used to that kind of thing now. ‘I think I could do it with you. I think it would be good. If you want it’

Erwin smiled again, leaning in to rest his forehead on Levi’s.

‘Very much so. I can’t imagine wanting this more with anyone but you’

Levi tilted his head up to kiss him. His lips were warm and familiar, and when he pulled away Erwin leaned in to kiss him again.

They kissed for a few moments more, before the delicious aroma of their food wafted over and Levi suddenly remembered where they were.

‘Our food’s getting cold,’ he murmured against Erwin’s mouth, and Erwin leaned back to look at the table, blinking. Seemed like both of them had briefly lost their bearings.

‘Oh. Right’

He pressed a quick kiss to the side of Levi’s head before scooting his chair back to his side of the table. Glancing at the glasses and the wine bottle, Erwin looked across at him. He grinned.

‘Seems a bit strange to just go back to dinner after that, doesn’t it?’

Levi rolled his eyes.

‘Well, what else are we gonna do? Fuck?’

Erwin spluttered on the wine he'd raised to his mouth to sip, leaving Levi to smile and smugly pour himself a glass of water.

‘Maybe later’ he muttered, renewing Erwin’s laughter.

They picked up their abandoned knives and forks and started to eat. A few minutes later, Levi was spearing the last of his potatoes onto his fork when he looked up and noticed Erwin beaming at him from across the table.

‘What’s that stupid look for?’ He smiled back.

Erwin huffed a laugh, resting his elbow on the table and placing his chin in his hand.

‘We’re going to be parents’

Levi shrugged, but inside his heart was beating wildly at the words and at the deliriously happy expression on his mate’s face.

‘Guess we are’

After dinner, when all their plates had been cleared away and Erwin had finished his glass of wine, he pulled Levi towards him, lips red and eyes soft in the candlelight. They stumbled together to their bed, and Erwin's touch on him was gentler than it had ever been.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait and short update! Hopefully the next chapter will come faster x

**Author's Note:**

> tbc
> 
> (More to come soon! ily all <3)


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